Dr. Michael Diebold is an Inorganic Chemist with degrees from the University of Illinois and Texas A&M. He has been involved in the pigmentary TiO2 business for over 32 years, exclusively focused on pigments for coatings. His current responsibilities included product and process development, and the study of fundamental properties of TiO2. He has 10 patents, over 20 publications in the coatings field, including a book on using TiO2 in paints, and has given more than 50 presentations in conferences and short courses worldwide. His numerous recognitions include the 1995 JOCCA Stern Award, a Roon Award, a Gordon award and the 2020 ACA Mattiello lectureship. Dr. Philipp Niedenzu is a Research Fellow at Chemours Company. He embarked on career as an industrial chemist in 1991 after completing a BA degree in chemistry from The University of Kentucky (1985) and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in inorganic chemistry (1991). He has been working in the performance chemicals industry for over 29 years in a variety of technical, marketing, manufacturing and innovation roles. His current research is focused on studying the behavior of light transmission and deflection primarily in plastic matrices. He is certified as a six sigma black belt, author of over 30 technical papers, 8-time recipient of the Society of Plastics Engineers “best paper award” and named inventor for 11 United States patents and applications. Dr. Steven De Backer is a Senior Innovation Consultant at Chemours Company. He obtained his doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Leuven, in Belgium. After 5 years of service in the quality department of a pharmaceutical company, he started his career at DuPont Belgium about 17 years ago. First as a formulating chemist for waterborne automotive coatings and later as a technical consultant for DuPont Titanium Dioxide Technology. He joined Chemours in that role after the split from DuPont. Currently he is focusing on technical customer support and on the development of new offerings. Dr. Brett Hester is a Senior Staff Chemist at Chemours Company. He obtained his doctorate in inorganic chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He currently works on product development R&D in Chemours’ Titanium Technologies business. His current area of focus is on new titanium products for coatings and coatings adjacent applications.Dr. Frank Vanhecke is a member of Chemours’s technical team supporting the titanium dioxide business, specifically in their décor paper applications group. Dr. Vanhecke has been in the paper industry for 27 years. Currently based in Kallo, Belgium, Dr. Vanhecke has been with Chemours (and DuPont) for 20 years. Prior to joining DuPont, he worked for Betz Dearborn/Hercules. Dr. Vanhecke is a member of the Technical Association of the Pulp & Paper Industry (TAPPI) and has prepared and presented at numerous paper industry seminars organized by the PTS and PIRA paper organizations.
