Dr. Dean C. Webster of North Dakota State University, Department of Coatings and Polymeric Materials will receive the Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings for 2011. 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. Webster began his career in the coatings industry in 1984 working initially in corporate R&D and later for the Consumer Division of Sherwin-Williams in Chicago, IL, 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. In 2001 he joined the Coatings and Polymeric Materials Department of North Dakota State University as Professor.
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 the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
At North Dakota State University Dr. Webster carries out research in the synthesis and characterization of novel polymers. Specific areas of focus are:
- Synthesis of new high performance polymers and thermosets. In particular glycidyl carbamate crosslinking is being investigated to prepare a variety of thermoset coatings and to study the structure-property relationships of the resulting coatings.
- Synthesis of novel polymer structures using methods such as ATRP, RAFT, and click chenistry.
- 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 naval vessels by synthesizing crosslinked siloxane-polyurethane coatings that will self-stratify into a soft and low surface energy siloxane outerlayer with a tough durable polyurethane sublayer utilizing combinatorial and high throughput methods.
- Radiation curable polymers for printable conductors for flexible microelectronics.
- Incorporation of nanoparticles into polymers.
Dr. Webster has authored over 75 peer-reviewed papers and publications and is credited with 11 patents (an additional 18 pending) on coatings related topics as well as having numerous presentations on coatings related topics. He is a past chair of the polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering Division of the American Chemical Society is on the Professional development Committee of the American Coatings Association (ACA), was recently named an Editor for the journal Progress in Organic Coatings.
Dr. Webster has won the first place Roon Foundation Award for the best paper in the 2003, 2004 and 2006 International Coatings Exposition (ICE) of American Coatings Association. He was the invited keynote Technical Focus Speaker at the 2004 ICE
Dr. Webster will receive the Tess Award from Dr Todd Emrick, Chair of the PMSE Division, on Wednesday, August 31, 2011 during the 242nd National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Denver, CO. Dr. Webster will present an Award Address at that time. An evening reception in honor of the recipient and other award winners will be held during the ACS meeting.