Roy W. Tess Award

2026 Award Winner

Prof. Rigoberto Advincula
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Rigoberto Advincula is a Governor’s Chair Professor of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the University of Tennessee. He is also a Group Leader at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), ORNL. His areas of expertise include organic and polymer chemistry, nanomaterials, coatings, flow chemistry and reaction engineering, additive manufacturing, and biomaterials. He has led major projects, including a machine learning (ML)- driven autonomous self-driving lab at ORNL and advanced nanocomposite manufacturing with the DOE. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), Fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS), Fellow of the Polymer Science and Engineering Division (ACS), Fellow of the Polymer Chemistry Division (ACS), Fellow of the Materials Research Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and Netzsch 2023 Fellow of the North American Thermal Analysis Society (NATAS). In 2024, he received the International Prize of the Society of Polymer Science of Japan (SPSJ). He recently received the 2026 George Stafford Whitby Award from the ACS Rubber Division. He has been appointed to the World Economic Forum, Advanced Materials Council. He is a member of the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology (BCST) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM).  He has held several visiting Professor positions, including Waseda University in Japan and the Max Planck Institute for Polymers (MPI-P) Research in Germany. He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Florida and held postdoctoral positions at the MPI-P and Stanford University. He is passionate about mentoring students and establishing interdisciplinary STEM programs.

• Professor Advincula’s notable areas of research include ultrathin films, smart coatings, superhydrophobic coatings, anti-corrosion coatings, hybrid plasmonic nanomaterials, and surface plasmon spectroscopy-based chemical sensing and characterization methods. He has published over 500 papers, has been cited over 28,100 times, and has an H-index of 87. Among his most important contributions in the polymer materials field include superhydrophobic coatings (Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2017, 56 (6), 1485–1497, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2014, 6, 22666-22672, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2012, 4 (6), 3169–3176), anti-corrosion coatings (Intelligent Coatings for Corrosion Control, 2014, pp. 409-430, Applied Surface Science, 2017, 422 (15), 162-171, Macrom. Mat. Eng.  2012, 297, 807–813.), electrochemically molecular imprinted polymer sensors (Macromolecules 2010, 43 (23), 9724–9735), and grafting of polymer brushes by anionic polymerization (Langmuir 2002, 18, 3324-3331).
   
• He has actively reached out to the industry and beyond the academic world, resulting in successful collaborations with companies. He was the Chair of the Technical Group, TGX-147 on Nanocorrosion with the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE), now AMPP. He has organized and conducted many training workshops and symposia, and has given a number of plenary talks for the coatings community, including the American Coatings Association and the Waterborne Symposium.
   
• Professor Advincula has 17 patents, including 14 granted and 3 PPA filings.
   
• He has trained many students. His breadth of mentoring accomplishments includes 81 Ph.D. graduates and MS/Ph. D. students, 74 visiting scholars, 16 Postdoctoral Scholars, 150 undergraduates, and 80 local high school students are working in his laboratory. Many of his former students are involved in the industry (3M, Baker Hughes, Sherwin-Williams, Dow, Behr Paints, Apple, etc.).

The Tess Award is presented annually by the Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering at the Fall National ACS Meeting in recognition of outstanding contributions to coatings science, engineering 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, and coverage of travel expenses (up to a maximum of $1500).  We look forward to recognizing Professor Advincula at the PMSE/POLY Plenary Lecture and Awards Reception this Spring in Atlanta, Georgia.