Fresh Paint
DUPONT ANNOUNCES
PRICE INCREASE OF UP TO 10%
DuPont CoatingSolutions announced
a price increase of up to ten percent,
effective September 1, on powder and
liquid industrial coatings in the U.S.
and Canada. The price increases are
driven partly by high prices for raw
materials and feedstocks derived
from petroleum, especially epoxy
based materials, polyester resins and
solvents. Availability of these materials is also an issue due to insufficient
capacity and production problems at
some suppliers.
NPCA, FSCT ANNUAL
MEETINGS TO BE JOINED
The National Paint and Coatings
Association (NPCA) and the Fed-
eration of Societies for Coatings
Technology (FSCT) will hold their
annual meetings concurrently, and
offer a new CoatingsTech Conference
April 26-29, 2009 at the Indianapolis
Marriot Downtown. The theme of the
Annual Meetings and CoatingsTech
Conference is “Embracing the Future.”
The new CoatingsTech Conference
will kick off on Monday, April 27, 2009,
A Coatings Chemist’s Quest for Freedom
BY TIM WRIGHT
EDITOR
It is not everyday that we receive memoirs about the
personal lives of coatings chemists here at Coatings
World. In fact, it’s never happened. That is until a
few months ago when we came across the story of Yan
Bielek, a senior product development chemist at West
Bridgewater, MA-based Shawmut Corporation. Married
to his wife Nora for 33 years with whom he has two
grown children, at a glance there appears to be nothing
extraordinary about this dedicated family man working
a job he loves day in and day out.
But behind Bielek’s seemingly ordinary life is a remarkable tale of courage, strength and ultimately survival.
Born in 1951 Bielek grew up behind the iron curtain of
communist-ruled Czechoslovakia. He graduated from the
Slovak Technical University Bratislava—College of
Chemistry in 1975, married Nora and had a son that
same year. Their daughter was born three years later.
While working as a chemist life under communist rule
offered very bleak prospects. It was not the life Bielek
dreamed of for himself and his family. Longing for freedom, in 1984 at 33 years of age, with his wife and two
small children, Bielek surrendered hope for a better life in
Czechoslovakia and escaped from the country. After
spending seven months in a refugee camp in Austria waiting for green cards, the family made it to the U.S.
Though without money, extended family, friends or job
prospects, Bielek had finally achieved the freedom he
always wished for his family. Armed only with the hope
for a better future and holding firmly onto his guiding
principle that “hard work must be rewarded,” Bielek
began to rebuild a life for his family from scratch.
Having experienced the tyrannical rule of communism
first-hand, Bielek recently set out to tell his tale. His fami-
lies perilous escape from the strangle hold of communism
and the long journey to freedom in the U.S. inspired the title
of Bielek’s book and serves as a
metaphor for his outlook on life.
“Just Don’t Turn” was self-pub-lished through Xlibris in
September 2007 and is currently
available at amazon.com.
These days Bielek continues
to thrive in his original profession as a chemist. Before leaving Czechoslovakia he was
awarded three patents there
and holds two patents in the
U.S. with another two applica-
tions currently filed with the
U.S. Patent Office. All of them are in the field of coatings.
When he’s not hard at work over the lab bench, Bielek
can be seen making presentations in local high schools,
libraries and clubs regarding his inspirational tale about
life in communist Czechoslovakia. As we went to press
the next presentation was scheduled for September 11 in
the West Bridgewater, MA public library.
The author Yan Bielek.
