Dr. Charles R. Hegedus of Air Products and chemicals will receive the Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings for 2010. The announcement was made by the Officers and the Award Committee of the Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) of the American Chemical Society. Dr. Hegedus is well known in the coatings industry and has made many contributions to it over a period of 30 years, first at the U.S. Naval Air Development Center and more recently at Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. He has carried out significant research and development in corrosion prevention without chromates, self-crosslinking polymer systems, zinc oxide nanoparticles, film formation and other aspects of waterborne coatings and in the characterization of coatings. He has been responsible for the invention and development of a number of products during his career.
Dr. Hegedus began his career developing organic coatings to be used on naval aircraft and other military equipment for corrosion prevention and detection/weapon countermeasures. He performed fundamental research on organic coating structure, property and performance relationships as well as investigating and resolving corrosion problems and coatings failures in the field. Probably his most significant accomplishment in the field of corrosion prevention was to develop UNICOAT, a self-priming topcoat for high performance applications, which is commercial at several paint companies. This material was one of the first corrosion preventive coating systems for aluminum that did not contain chromated materials. In addition, it demonstrated the benefits of multi-functional coatings which eliminate the need for multi-coat systems.
At Air Products, Dr. Hegedus focused on waterborne materials, directing and performing research and development leading to new polymers and additives that have proved to be of considerable use to the coatings industry. Probably his most interesting project employed Atomic Force Microscopy to study film formation in waterborne coatings, particularly two-component polyurethanes, research that led to new products and several publications. Other efforts led to waterborne primers for water repellent coatings, waterborne acrylic-epoxy coatings and aqueous acrylic-polyurethane hybrid dispersions. These products include Adura® polyester polyols, Hybridur® acrylic-urethane latexes, Ancarez® AR550 epoxy resin and amine-based crosslinkers.
Dr. Hegedus has authored over 46 papers and publications and is credited with 20 patents (an additional five pending) on coatings related topics. He has served as the Corrosion Committee Chairman for the FSCT and has sat on the Journal of Coatings Technology and Society of Automotive Engineers Editorial Review Boards. Dr. Hegedus is a member of the FSCT Publications Committee and the Philadelphia Coatings Society Technical Committee. He has been a course lecturer for ASM International, the National Association for Corrosion Engineers, FSCT and Drexel University. Dr. Hegedus has also been responsible for establishing and promoting interaction between coatings and materials related groups within Air Products.
Dr. Hegedus’ has received the two highest awards conferred by FSCT: the Mattiello Lectureship for technical accomplishments and the George B. Heckel Award for coatings industry support. In addition, he received a U.S. EPA Administrator’s Award for Pollution Prevention for UNICOAT, two FSCT Roon Awards for outstanding papers presented at Federation Annual Meetings and an FSCT Corrosion Committee Award for his publications on anti-corrosion coatings. In addition he received an Air Products Technology Award in 1996.
Dr. Hegedus will receive the Tess Award from Dr. Julie L. P. Jessop, Chair of the PMSE Division, on Monday, August 23, 2010 during the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston, MA. Dr. Hegedus will present an Award Address at that time. An evening reception sponsored by the PMSE Division will follow the Award Symposium.
The Tess Award is presented annually by the Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering in recognition of outstanding contributions to coatings science and technology. It is funded by a grant to the Division from Dr. and Mrs. Roy W. Tess. 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.