George Pilcher named to deliver Mattiello Lecture at FSCT Annual Meeting

George Pilcher named to deliver Mattiello Lecture at FSCT Annual Meeting

George Pilcher named to deliver Mattiello Lecture at FSCT Annual Meeting

The Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology announced that George R. Pilcher, Akzo Nobel Coatings' Technical Director for Coil and Extrusion Coatings in the Americas and The People's Republic of China, will deliver the Joseph J. Mattiello Memorial Lecture during the FSCT's 2004 Annual Meeting. The meeting is scheduled for 27-29 October at McCormick Place, North Chicago, and will be held in conjunction with the Federation's International Coatings Exposition (ICE) and the International Coatings Technology Conference.

The Mattiello lecturer is judged to be an individual who has made “outstanding contributions to the science and/or technology of coatings,” and is invited to deliver a paper related to chemistry or another aspect of coatings technology, the Federation said. The lecture commemorates the contributions of Dr Mattiello, a former president of the FSCT (1943-44) who was instrumental in expanding the application of the sciences in the decorative and protective coatings fields. He was Vice-President and Technical Director of Hilo Varnish Corp. when he died in 1948.

Pilcher has held a variety of technical and management positions in the coatings industry since graduating from Wooster College in 1970 with a chemistry degree. His work experience includes 11 years with The Sherwin-Williams Co.'s coil and industrial coatings businesses, technical director at Hanna Chemical Coatings Corp., and various positions with Akzo Coatings Inc. and Akzo Nobel Coatings. In his current position, he directs research and technology development for coil and extrusion coatings.

Pilcher is the author of more than 20 technical papers that have been published in a number of industry and technology journals. He has delivered numerous lectures and presentations, and has given the keynote address at meetings of the National Coil Coaters Association and European Coil Coaters Association. He delivered the keynote address at the first pan-American Coatings Conference in Buenos Aires in 2001 and at FATIPEC in 2002 in Dresden, Germany. He has been the chairman of the Gordon Research Conference on the Chemistry and Physics of Coatings and Films and chairman of the Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering Division (PMSE) of the American Chemical Society. The PMSE division elected him as a Fellow in 2001.

Pilcher is a former chairman of the Federation's Professional Development Committee and a past president of the FSCT's Coatings Industry Education Foundation (CIEF). He received the FSCT's highest honour, the George Baugh Heckel Award, in 1996 in recognition of his “outstanding contributions to the coatings industry”.