40th Annual
WATERBORNE SYMPOSIUM
The University of Southern Mississippi’s School of Polymers and High Performance
Materials hosted the Symposium, which drew 43 speakers and 246 attendees.
Bridget Klebaur, Associate Editor
The University of Southern Mississippi’s School of Polymers and High Performance Materials held its 40th Annual Waterborne Symposium Feb. 4-8 at the Marriot
in New Orleans, LA. The symposium drew 246 attendees who
had the chance to hear 43 speakers present talks on various
subjects including coating testing, sulfates for emulsion polymerization, innovation, epoxy tank coatings and many more. In
addition to this there were 14 student poster sessions and 18
exhibitors who were part of the technology showcase.
The presentations by various speakers were divided up into
categories and took place all day Wednesday, Feb. 6 to Friday,
Feb. 8. The categories of presentations were three keynote
general speeches on Wednesday morning, UV and Bio-Based,
Waterborne, Additives, general and pigments. There was also
an Eastman student poster session and an awards ceremony on
Friday afternoon.
The opening session, titled “Hubble, Bubble, Tests and
Trouble; The Dark Side of Misreading the Relevance of Coatings
Testing,” was presented by Mike O’Donoghue, director of engineering and technical services, Akzo Nobel Coatings Ltd.
O’Donoghue spoke on assumptions made about coatings
testing and problems that these assumptions bring about.
“When Shakespeare was writing MacBeth, the witches
chanted the famous line ‘Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble.’ Or
did they? They did not. Its repeated use has led us to believe
that’s what they said. It’s the difference between reality and
perception,”said O’Donoghue.
O’Donoghue compared this scenario to assumptions made
in many coatings specifications and the monumental issues that
they cause. He discussed situations such as the Canadian oil
patch, where assumptions that all was well and specifications
were in harmony were actually detrimental.
“Coatings failures can end up with $30 to $40 million
lawsuits because of these assumptions, which is a shame,”
he said.
O’Donoghue admitted that in order for things to change, the
standards must change, which involves a lot of committee work.
In order for this to happen, one must see the problem first to
understand then come up with a solution.
Another keynote speaker was Jay Martin of Martin Bionics
Imagination, LLC., who presented a speech titled “From Ideas
to Dollars; Maximizing the Economic and Societal Impact of
Your Ideas.”
Martin related his experience as a young and inexperienced
entrepreneur who had nothing but his ideas to go on when at-
tempting to start his company.
Jay Martin of Martin Bionics Imagination, LLC presenting his keynote speech,
“From Ideas to Dollars; Maximizing the Economic and Societal Impact of Your
Ideas.”
March 2013
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