by May 31, 2011 through the website
www.abrafati2011.com.br. The summary
should be 20 to 30 lines long, in Portuguese, English or Spanish. It should include a title, the author’s name (and
co-authors), the speaker’s name and the
basic content summarized.
Rhodia acquires Suzhou Hipro
Polymers’ guar unit in China
Rhodia has acquired the guar derivatives
production unit belonging to Suzhou
HiPro Polymers based in Zhangjiagang in
Jiangsu Province, China. This Chinese unit
will complement Rhodia’s existing global
guar derivatives manufacturing footprint
with production units located in North
America (US), in Europe (France) and in
Asia-Pacific (India). This acquisition will
enable Rhodia to meet the fast-growing
demand for guar–based products in Asia,
particularly from the personal care market. In parallel news, Rhodia also is investing in its North American facility in
Vernon, Texas to increase its guar derivatives production capacity and improve its
competitiveness. This additional capacity
will contribute to meeting increasing
global customer demand, in particular in
the oilfield and gas, and personal care
markets. Rhodia’s guar-based range,
mainly sold under the Jaguar trade name,
is derived from the vegetable and renewable fibers of guar beans. Natural guar-based products are used in the personal
care market to provide hair and skin conditioning benefits in shampoo and cleansing products. They are also used as
antidrift agents in Rhodia’s patented agro-chemical applications and as a thickener
in oil and gas extraction.
Dean Webster to receive 2011
Roy W. Tess Award
The Officers and the Award Committee of
the Division of Polymeric Materials: Sci-
ence and Engineering (PMSE) of the
American Chemical Society have named
Dr. Dean C. Webster of North Dakota
State University, Department of Coatings
and Polymeric Materials as the recipient
of the Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings for
2011. Webster will receive the Roy W. Tess
Award from Todd Emrick, chair of the
PMSE Division, on August 29, 2011, dur-
ing the 242nd National Meeting of the
American Chemical Society in Denver,
CO. The award consists of a plaque and a
$3,000 cash prize.
At North Dakota State University,
Webster carries out research on the synthesis and characterization of novel polymers. His specific areas of focus include
the synthesis of new high performance
polymers and thermosets, polymerization
reactions, quantitative structure-property
relationships, and the use of natural products in coatings systems. He has contributed over 48 papers and publications
and is credited with 11 patents on coatings related topics. Webster 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 ACA, and
was an editor for and now sits on the editorial board of the journal Progress in
Organic Coatings.
Webster received both his B.S. degree
in Chemistry and his Ph.D. in Materials
Engineering Science from the Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University,
the latter of which he earned in 1984. He
began his career in the coatings industry
working for the R&D Department of the
Consumer Division of Sherwin-Williams
in Chicago, IL. At Sherwin-Williams, Webster 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 faculty of the Coatings and Polymeric
Materials Department at North Dakota
State University.
One of Webster’s main research interests
has been applying combinatorial and high
throughput methods to the field of materials science in order to explore and screen a
wide variety of polymer compositions in a
short time period for polymer synthesis,
formulation, and coatings properties. He is
also interested in non-toxic fouling release
coatings for naval vessels. These coatings
are made by synthesizing crosslinked silox-ane-polyurethane coatings that self-stratify
into a soft and low surface energy
siloxane outerlayer with a tough,
durable polyurethane sublayer,
which utilizes combinatorial and
high throughput methods.
Webster won the first place Roon
Foundation Award for the best paper at
the 2003, 2004 and 2006 ACA-sponsored
International Coatings Exposition (ICE).
He was also the invited keynote Technical
Focus Speaker at the 2004 ICE.
Sartomer to host free UV/EB
technical seminar
Sartomer USA, LLC will present a free
technical seminar on ultraviolet light and
electron beam (UV/EB) curing chemistries
at its headquarters in Exton, PA. The
three-day seminar will be held March 29-
31, 2011. The seminar is targeted to in-
dustrial chemists and product formulators
looking to expand their current knowl-
edge of UV/EB chemistries, as well as
those interested in investigating new op-
tions for their products. The seminar will
feature technology experts from Sartomer
as well as recognized industry leaders in
the related areas of formulation additives
and UV/EB curing equipment. Partici-
pants will receive detailed information in
the following areas: chemical struc-
ture/property relationships; weatherabil-
ity; corrosion resistance and metal
protection; and moisture vapor and oxy-
gen resistance. For more information con-
tact James Goodrich, UV/EB technical
manager, at
james.goodrich@sartomer.com.
The complete seminar agenda is available
at http://www.sartomer.com/events.asp.
Altana acquires polymer
modifier producer Kometra
The specialty chemicals Group Altana has
signed an agreement to acquire Kometra
Kunststoff-Modifikatoren und -Additiv
GmbH. Kometra produces polymer modifiers in Schkopau, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. These modifiers are specific
surface-active copolymers, which are used
as impact modifiers and adhesion promo-tors in many applications. Polymer modifiers are applied in the refinement of
standard plastics and are particularly
used in technical applications, for exam-
