Michele Whited
Michele Whited supervises the Analytical Services Group and brings over 26 years of experience to the Polymer and Material Sciences Department. During that time, she has focused on resolving production problems, coatings de-formulation, and compositional analysis of a variety of unknown materials. Michele has also led or contributed significantly to several methods development projects including the development of our laboratory NIR system and our LC-Transform methods. Michele specializes in FT-IR spectroscopy and received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Baldwin Wallace College in 1993. |
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Lynn Bender
Lynn Bender graduated from the University of Dayton with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry. She began her career with Glidden/ICI as a Research Chemist in the Packaging Coatings area. About 15 years ago she joined the Polymer and Coatings Analysis Team; her initial focus was on Thermal Analysis. For the last 10 years, Lynn has been developing skills as a chromatographer. Currently she is responsible for the day to day operation of the GPC lab and will assist in the HPLC function. Lynn primarily focuses on GPC as an aid to product development and problem solving. |
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Carol Trende
Carol has held various positions at the Research Center during her past 27 years with the company. She's held positions in our Communications Processing Dept., our Technical Information Library, and she was our IT Services Coordinator. Most recently she took on the role as our Marketing and Operations Coordinator where she supports our external business marketing functions and also plays a vital role in our monthly financial reporting where she is responsible for all financial activities within our group, as well as managing the group's Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). |
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Candice Michalski
Candice Michalski is a Chemist managing the Thermal Analysis and Particle Size Labs. She has amassed over 30 years of experience in the coatings industry and has expertise in latex formulation, industrial coatings application, and a variety of analytical techniques. Candy is a graduate of the Akron University (AAS) and Baldwin Wallace College (BS). |
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Dr. Richard Eley
Dr. Richard R. Eley is a Senior Scientist, in charge of the Rheology and Interface Science Laboratory. He has over 30 years experience in materials characterization and problem solving. He holds a Ph.D. in Physical-Inorganic Chemistry from Kent State University. Following Post-Doctoral research at Georgetown University, he was Assistant Professor of Chemistry, U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. With over 30 technical publications, his research interests include the rheology of complex and structured fluids (paints, coatings, adhesives, sealants, colloids, dispersions, polymer melts), chemorheology of thermosetting polymers, surface energetics of polymers, wetting of liquids on solids, and coating flows modeling and simulation. He is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Delaware. He has been Distinguished Lecturer for the Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology since 1995. He received the Mattiello Award for distinguished scientific achievement from the Federation, and three First Place Roon Awards from the Federation. He is a member of the American Chemical Society, the Division of Polymeric Materials Science & Engineering, the Society of Rheology, and the Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology. |
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Patricia Starrett
Patricia Starrett is a Senior Technical Librarian in the Data & Knowledge Management group at AkzoNobel. Patricia graduated with a BA degree from the University of Toledo, and a Master in Library Science from Kent State University. She has spent twenty-two years at ICI Glidden Paints and AkzoNobel in the field of information science practicing online searching and competitive intelligence work. Patricia also manages the library book and journal collection. |
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Brian Rostetter
Brian Rostetter is a Senior Coatings Chemist in the Polymer and Coatings Analysis group at AkzoNobel Packaging Coatings, specializing in gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). After graduating with a bachelor's degree in biology and a bachelor's degree in education from Bowling Green State University, Brian has spent 29 years honing his analytical skills in the coatings industry. Brian has played a key role in resolving production problems and in providing support to new product development. In addition to his work in the GC area, Brian is also the safety steward for the group. |
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Pamela Kuschnir
Pam has over 29 years of experience in the coatings industry. After graduating with honors in Chemistry from the College of Wooster, Pam spent 3 years studying organic reaction mechanisms at the University of Kansas. Her career in industrial science began at Sherwin-Williams as a member of the Organic and Catalyst Research Laboratory where she spent 13 years studying oxidative cure catalysis, among other subjects. After joining ICI Paints, she spent eleven years as a scientist, studying flow and leveling, foaming and sag control, coatings rheology and compositional mapping of waterborne coatings as an aid to formulation. Her efforts earned her two Roon Awards for best scientific paper from the Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology. While she still maintains an interest in the rheology of materials, her research interests more recently include studies of the surface energetics and interfacial energetics of a wide variety of materials. |
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Natalie Homann
Natalie Homann has recently joined the Polymer Coatings and Analysis group at AkzoNobel Packaging Coatings as a chemist in the Rheology and Interface Science Laboratory specializing in coatings rheology. She graduated from Baldwin-Wallace College with a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry in 2001 and has spent the past seven years working as a Research Scientist developing micro-fabrication processes for wet-chemical etching, physical vapor deposition, and photolithography, for the production of novel III-V Photovoltaic’s, Sensors and Light Emitting Diodes. |
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Francene Korpowski
Francene Korpowski is a Coatings Chemist in the Polymer and Coatings Analysis Group of AkzoNobel Packaging Coatings. She graduated with a B.S. in biology from Cleveland State University and has 15 years experience in the coatings industry. Previously involved in both the inorganic analysis and organic analysis labs, Francene’s current focus is in FT-IR spectroscopy. |
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Mike Neag
Mike is the Technical Manager of the Polymer and Coatings Analysis department in AkzoNobel Packaging Coatings group and has nearly 22 years of experience in polymers, coatings and materials science. During the first 15 years of his tenure, Mike’s research interests centered on the analysis of material properties by thermal analysis. More recently, he has assumed the role of microscopist, providing product support and problem solving by Light Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, and AFM. He has published over 25 papers on thermoset cure, reaction kinetics and the physical properties of polymers, including a chapter on “Coatings Characterization by Thermal Analysis” for the latest edition of the ASTM paint testing manual. He has also given numerous invited lectures and short course presentations on thermal analysis. Mike is a recipient of the Roon Award from the Federation of Coatings Society and has also received the ICI Glidden award for Technical Excellence. He is a past President of the North American Thermal Analysis Society and holds degrees in Biology and Polymer Science from the University of Akron. |
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