Fargo, N.D.—Dr. Dean C. Webster of North Dakota State University (NDSU) Coatings and Polymeric Materials (CPM) Department will receive the prestigious Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings for 2011 from the American Chemical Society (ACS). The Officers and Award Committee of the Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) of the ACS made the award announcement.

Dr. Webster will receive the Tess Award from Dr. Todd Emrick, Chair of the PMSE Division, on Aug. 29, 2011, during the 242nd National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Denver, Colo. Dr. Webster will present an Award Address at that time. The purpose of the award is to encourage interest and progress in coatings science technology and engineering and to recognize significant contributions to the field. The Award consists of a plaque and a $3000 cash prize. Dr. Webster noted that three others once affiliated with NDSU are past recipients of the Tess Award including CPM department chairs Zeno W. Wicks, Jr. in 1988 and Frank N. Jones in 2001; and J. Edward Glass in 2005.

Dr. Webster joined the Coatings and Polymeric Materials Department of NDSU as a professor in 2001. His research includes developing green technology coatings that use biobased materials, polymers that use nanoparticles, coatings for flexible microelectronics, and non-toxic coatings for use on Navy ships. At NDSU, Dr. Webster’s specific areas of focus are:

• Synthesis of new high performance polymers and thermosets.
• Synthesis of novel polymer structures.
• Use of biobased raw materials in high performance coatings systems.
• The use of Combinatorial and High Throughput methods applied to Materials Science to explore and screen a wide variety of polymer and coating compositions in a short period of time.
• Non-toxic fouling release coatings for Navy vessels.
• Radiation curable polymers for printable conductors for flexible microelectronics.
• Incorporation of nanoparticles into polymers.

Dr. Webster has authored more than 75 peer-reviewed papers and publications and is credited with 11 patents (an additional 18 pending) on coatings related topics. He is a past chair of the Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering Division of the American Chemical Society. He serves on the Professional Development Committee of the American Coatings Association (ACA), and was recently named an Editor for the journal, Progress in Organic Coatings. Previously, Dr. Webster won Roon Foundation Awards for the best paper in the 2003, 2004 and 2006 International Coatings Exposition (ICE) of the American Coatings Association. He was the invited keynote Technical Focus Speaker at the 2004 International Coatings Exposition.

Dr. Webster’s career in the coatings industry began in 1984 in corporate R&D, followed by research for the Consumer Division of Sherwin-Williams in Chicago, Ill., where he was involved in resin development for industrial coatings, as well as long-range research in new resins and crosslinking chemistry. In 1993, he moved to Eastman Chemical Company where he led project teams in the areas of application development for new monomers, new chemistry for coatings systems, and polymer development for coatings.

Dr. Webster received his Ph.D. in materials engineering science at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1984. Prior to that, he received his B.S. degree in chemistry at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.