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