As New Orleans prepared to conclude the 2023 Mardi Gras season, nearly 300 coatings industry formulators, scientists, chemists, and technical managers came together February 12–17 in Louisiana’s Crescent City for the 50th Annual International Waterborne, High-Solids, and Powder Coatings Symposium—better known as the Waterborne Symposium.
Hosted by the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) School of Polymer Science and Engineering, the Waterborne Symposium offered attendees five days of short courses, technical presentations, a poster session, and in-person networking opportunities.
Three days of optional short courses kicked off the week, leading up to the opening of the symposium on Wednesday, when Juliane P. Santos of Indorama Ventures presented the plenary lecture, “Sustainability Guiding New Developments in the Coatings Industry.”
Santos holds a Ph.D. in Langmuir Blodgett-Films from the University of Sao Paulo. She did her postdoctoral work on synthesis, structure, and properties of latexes at University of Campinas, and she has been working in latex field for 22 years. She is currently a specialist at Indorama Ventures, formerly Oxiteno, where she is responsible for developing surfactants for emulsion polymerization and emulsification of resins.
Following Santos’s presentation, attendees gathered for coffee and networking in the Technology Showcase exhibit hall, where nearly 20 leading suppliers to the industry, including CoatingsTech, offered a firsthand look at related products, equipment, services, and expertise.
After the morning break, Matthew Gadman of King Industries presented the Sidney Lauren Memorial Lecture, “Formulating Durable Aminoplast and NCO Crosslinked Waterborne Coatings: Importance of Backbone Composition.”
The Sidney Lauren Memorial Lecture is a staple of the symposium that memorializes Sidney Lauren, a scientific leader in the coatings industry who served as executive director of the Coatings Research Group and was active in the Coatings Industry Education Foundation, which supported educational programs and curriculums devoted to the sciences of coatings technology.
In 2022, Gadman received the Siltech Best Paper Award for his presentation, “Unique Catalyst for Low Temperature Cure Epoxy Powder Coatings,” which was published in the January-February 2023 issue of CoatingsTech.
Following the opening lectures, the technical presentations split into tracks—Additives, General, High-Solids, and Waterborne—for the remainder of the event. Organizers report that among the 40 presentations, 28 papers were presented.
At the conclusion of the conference, four presenters were recognized for their papers’ exceptional contributions to the technical program. Top honors for the Siltech Best Paper Award went to Shan Jiang from Iowa State University for his presentation, “Creating Waterborne Self-Stratified Coatings by Adding Anisotropic Particles.”
Earning the PCI Award for Technical Excellence was Sebastian Weiss from BYK-Chemie for his paper “Encapsulation of Silicone Additives for Increased Compatibility and Long-Term Effects.”
Two students tied for the Mendon Best Student Paper Award: Aynslie Fritz and Lina Ghambari–both from the Wiggins Research Group at USM.
Other students from USM and Louisiana State University (LSU) also participated in the event, sharing their research with attendees during the 2023 Evonik Student Poster Session that featured 20 student posters.
Andrew Barbour of Qiang Research Group at USM took first place in undergraduate category for “Ordered Mesoporous Carbon (OMC),” while Jaylin Davis of the Patton Research Group at USM “Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Polybenzoxazine Vitrimer Thermosets” was honored for first place for graduate student poster.
Second place for the graduate student posters went to Jacob Schekman of Simon and Nazarenko Research Groups at USM for “Investigating Solvent Effects on thiol-ene Network Formation.”
Two graduate posters tied for third place: Pritha Bhunia Patton Research Group at USM for “Design and Synthesis of Vitrimer Thermosets Derived from Main-Chain Benzoxazine Polyesters” and Maria Martinez of the Pojman Research Group at LSU for “Optimization of Cure-On Demand Thin Layer Coatings Using Frontal Polymerization.”
As a crucial component of the USM academic program, the Waterborne Symposium plays a central role in supplying the industry with qualified candidates to fill technical positions. Proceeds help the university recruit and retain students who show promise as future coatings industry innovators, supporting graduate student stipends and undergraduate student scholarships, acquisition and maintenance of equipment, and more.
The 51st Waterborne Symposium will be held February 4–9, 2024. USM says the abstract submissions will open later this year. For more information about categories of interest and how to submit, visit the Waterborne Symposium website.