The Officers and the Award Committee of the Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) of the American Chemical Society are pleased to announce that Dr. David R. Bauer, Senior Staff Technical Specialist, Materials Science Department, Ford Motor Company, will receive the Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings for 2000.
Dr. Bauer is widely known for his research in the areas of mechanisms and kinetics of cure, network structure in high-solids coatings, flow control and coating rheology, polymer photodegradation and stabilization, plastics characterization and coating service life prediction. He has made extensive use of infrared spectroscopy to study the crosslinking kinetics of melamine formaldehyde resins and isocyanates. He was the first to apply network models to calculate crosslink densities from chemical measurements. These calculations compared well with physical measures of cure and provided unique insights into cure windows for different technologies.
Dr. Bauer also made fundamental measurements of coating rheology and developed quantitative relationships between rheological parameters, coating formulation parameters and sag control agents. He investigated the fundamental mechanism of different sag control agents using a combination of rheology and light scattering. This work led to a comprehensive model of coating flow from application to cure.
He has made seminal contributions in the area of coatings degradation and stabilization. Dr. Bauer was the first to measure the rate of crosslink hydrolysis in acrylic melamine coatings, a process critical to acid etch resistance. He also made extensive studies of the interaction of light and water on the degradation chemistries of these coatings. Using infrared spectroscopy, electron spin resonance, magic angle NMR spectroscopy and hydroperoxide measurements, he developed a critical understanding of coating photooxidation kinetics and stabilization by HALS additives. Finally, he has used statistical methods to develop coating failure models that allow for the prediction of in-service failure rates as a function of market region and coating performance in specific test protocols.
Dr. Bauer received a Bachelor of Science from the California Institute of Technology in 1971 and a Doctorate Degree in chemical physics from the Chemistry Department of Stanford University in 1975. After a post-doctoral appointment in the Chemistry Department of the University of Illinois, he joined the Research Laboratory of the Ford Motor Company in 1977. After spending 22 year working in the areas of coatings and plastics, he has recently initiated a research project in fuel cell materials.
Dr. Bauer is the author of more than 100 technical papers in the fields of coatings and plastics research, and has made over 100 presentations in these areas. In 1996, he presented the Mattiello Lecture at the annual meeting of the Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology. He is a member of the review boards of the Journal of Coatings Technology and Polymer Degradation and Stability. He is active in the American Chemical Society and was Chair of the Division of Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering in 1994. He was also Chairman of the Ford Chapter of Sigma Xi in 1984.
Dr. Bauer will receive the Tess Award from Dr. Christopher Ober of the PMSE Division on Monday, August 21, 2000 during the 220th Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington, D.C. Dr. Bauer will present an Award Address at that time. An evening reception sponsored by the Ford Motor Company and the PMSE Division will follow the Award Symposium.
Funded by a grant from Dr. and Mrs. Roy Tess, the award is presented annually by PMSE for outstanding contributions to coatings science and technology. The award’s purpose is to encourage interest and progress in coatings and recognize significant contributors to the field. The award consists of a plaque and a cash prize.