Protective Coatings

Mei Wen is a Research Associate at Axalta Coating Systems, located at the Coatings Technology Center in Wilmington, Delaware.  She has worked in the chemical industry for fifteen years, with her primary focus being directed toward organic coatings.  Since joining Axalta Coating Systems in 2013, she has worked on clearcoats for Automotive Coatings and leads an academic collaboration between Axalta and the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Prague, Czech Republic on coatings film formation.  Prior to her current work, Dr. Wen worked at Arkema for ten years on acrylic, polyurethane, epoxy, marine antifoulant, mesoporous titanium oxide, and transparent conductive oxide coatings.   She served as a Director on the Board for the International Society of Coating Science and Technology (ISCST) from 2008 to 2012.  She was selected to attend the National Academy of Engineering’s U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium in 2007.  In 2005 she received anR&D 100 award on Marine Antifoulant Coating binders with her colleagues and was an invited speaker at Gordon Research Conference for Coatings and Films. Prior to her time at Arkema, Dr. Wen also worked for Applied Materials on electroplating of copper. She has published 26 technical papers. She received her B.S. and M.S. degrees of Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University in 1987 and 1995, respectively, and her Ph.D. degree of Chemical Engineering from University of Minnesota in 2001.Karel Dušek is at present Emeritus Professor of Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry (IMC), Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. He served for this institution since 1965 in various positions, since 1973 as Principal Scientist and Head of Department of Mechanical Properties and Polymer Networks; in the period 1975-1991 he headed the joint Department of Polymer Physics. He obtained his PhD degree from Institute of Physical Chemistry, Czechoslovak Academy ofSciences in 1958, and worked for SYNPO Research Establishment in Pardubice, CZ, until 1965. His educational and research activities included polymer physics and chemistry at Charles University in Prague, University of Pardubice, and visiting professorships at Technical University, Delft (The Netherlands), University of Essex (UK), University of Massachusetts in Amherst (USA), Kyoto Institute of Technology (Japan), University of Pau and INSA Lyon (France). Since 1997, he is Adjunct Professor of Bioengineering Department of University of Utah in Salt Lake City. In 1997, he was honored by the Doctor Honoris Causa degree by Wroclaw Technical University (Poland). Other honors and awards included State Prize of Czechoslovak Republic in 1988, Silver Medal of City of Paris in 1990, Heyrovský Medal for Merits in Chemical Sciences in 2000, P.J. Flory Polymer Research Award in 2004; he was awarded three times by Annual Prize of the Academy of Sciences. Prof. Dušek is Founding Member of Polymer Networks Group (1974), served as Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Treasurer and organized three of the biennial meetings.  He is also Founding Member of Learned Society of the Czech Republic. He served as Editor in seven scientific journals. On European Union scene, Prof. Dušek served as Coordinator of Area of Excellence “Structure-Property Relationships” of Network of Excellence Nanostructured Multifunctional Polymer-Based Materials and Nanocomposites and as Coordinator of Czech representation in this Network. By January 2013, he published about 300 scientific papers with over 7700 citations and his H-index was 43.

• Role of Distributions in Binders and Curatives and their Effect on Network Evolution and Structure.- Heterogeneity in Crosslinked Polymer Networks: Molecular Dynamics Simulations.- Rigidity Percolation Modeling of Modulus Development During Free-Radical Cross-linking Polymerization.- Rheology Measurement for Automotive Coatings.- Magnetic Microrheology for Characterization of Viscosity in Coatings.- CryoSEM: Revealing Microstructure Development in Drying Coatings.- Film Formation through Designed Diffusion Technology.- In-Situ FTIR Study of Cure Kinetics of Coatings with Controlled Humidity.- Shrinkage in UV Curable Coatings.- Measurements of Stress Development in Latex Coatings.- Stress Development in Reactive Coatings.- Swelling of Coating Films.- Chemical Depth Profiling of a Multilayered Coating System Using Slab Microtomy and FTIR-ATR Analysis.- Characterization of Component Distributions in Acrylic Latex and Paint Films Containing an Alkali-Soluble  Resin (ASR).