Author Topic: They can fix a sticky situation  (Read 4062 times)

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They can fix a sticky situation
« on: January 12, 2008, 01:48:46 PM »
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They can fix a sticky situation
Tracy Frank
The Forum - 01/12/2008

North Dakota State University professor Vicki Gelling jokes that it’s her job to watch metal rust and paint dry.

While that may not seem like an exciting way to make a living, the work done at NDSU’s Department of Coatings and Polymeric Materials is far from mundane and touches many aspects of our lives.

Department researchers are involved in a variety of projects ranging from finding eco-friendly ways to prevent barnacles from attaching to ships to restoring Picasso paintings.

“A lot of the world is painted or varnished or coated,” said Stuart Croll, department chairman.

Coatings make aspirin easier to swallow, stop soda from eroding aluminum cans, and improve the efficiency of NASA space shuttles and Navy ship fleets.

Polymers are everywhere, from CD cases and egg cartons to soda bottles and acrylic paints.

NDSU’s Department of Coatings and Polymeric Materials, launched more than 100 years ago to check paint performance by testing its components, has become a world-renowned research program. Clients include the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

A $12 million high-end laboratory that uses robots and other specialized equipment is capable of doing several thousand experiments a week.

The lab is a state-of-the-art, world-class facility, said Richard Roesler, senior principle scientist for Bayer Corp. in Pittsburgh and an adjunct professor at NDSU.

“This is probably the best-equipped university in the world,” Roesler said. “It’s a fantastic department.”

Its students and teachers hail from across the world.

Graduates land starting jobs paying up to $80,000 annually with prominent corporations such as Hewlett-Packard, Kodak and Dupont.

“We were the first at it and we’ve been at it the longest,” Croll said.

Student opportunities


Sri Lankan doctoral student Dilhan Fernando is wrapping up six years of Air Force-funded research studying the degradation of aircraft coatings.

Fernando decided to attend NDSU’s Department of Coatings and Polymeric Materials because it was the only university program he could find in the world that offers a doctorate degree in coatings-related research, he said.

“People ask me how I ended up in Fargo, North Dakota,” Fernando said. “They are surprised to hear that there is a unique department like this at NDSU.”

Ankit Vora, who came to the United States in 2001 from India, decided to pursue a doctorate in coatings and polymeric materials because of his undergraduate experience.

“That really excited me,” Vora said. “Working in the lab actually motivated me to go for grad school.”

Research funding from outside the North Dakota University System has more than doubled over the past seven years, allowing the department to double graduate student enrollment, Croll said.

Graduate students are typically paid $1,700 a month for research assistantships and can receive a tuition waiver if they maintain at least a B grade average.

“We’re very fortunate that we can pay students a living wage,” Croll said.

Students work with state-of-the-art equipment. A $250,000 atomic force microscope collects nanoscale data on the fundamental surface character of coatings.

Positron annihilation spectroscopy uses electrons and positrons to study composite materials and basic physical properties of materials. The equipment costs about $200,000.

“All of our work is very applied,” said Professor Dean Webster. “(Students) know that if they come up with something really interesting, it could actually end up in a product fairly soon.”

“I was so fascinated by the practicality of the research,” said Stacy Sommer, a second-year doctoral student from Wisconsin who is working on a project sponsored by the Office of Naval Research.

Sommer is developing nontoxic ship coatings that are not lethal to organisms that attach to their hulls. Instead, the coatings only allow organisms to adhere weakly, so they can be easily removed.

Corrosion of military equipment and infrastructure is estimated to cost between $10 billion and $20 billion annually, the department of coatings and polymeric materials stated, citing a congressional report.

NDSU’s coatings and polymers department maintains close ties with industries and government agencies to make sure teaching and research keeps pace with rapidly changing science and technology.

“All of us on the faculty get invitations to present at and attend international meetings, so we’re probably in some ways known better outside of Fargo,” Webster said.

Job outlook


Croll said most students leave the department knowing they have a job.

“The students are quite sought after,” he said.

Fargo-based Tecton Products has hired two doctoral graduates for management roles and several engineers with minors in coatings and polymeric materials.

“(The department has) been a great resource for attaining technically degreed associates that have the desire to reside in North Dakota,” said John Jambois, president of Tecton, a pultrusion manufacturer for the composite materials industry.

“The coatings and polymeric materials department has provided excellent technical support to us, as well as use of their testing services,” Jambois said. “They have continually demonstrated a willingness to work with us to foster leading-edge technology.”

In recent years, the department has received more inquiries from companies seeking graduate students, Croll said.

Most students have to leave the Fargo-Moorhead area to find jobs, Webster said.

Bayer Corp., a $9 billion research-based company with major businesses in health care and life sciences, has hired several NDSU polymers and coatings graduates, Roesler said.

“We needed a Ph.D. chemist and we hired one in 2007 from NDSU to run our laboratory,” Roesler said. “His experience was exactly what we needed.”

Joel Johnson, a coatings research leader with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in Dayton, Ohio, credits training at NDSU for his current success.

“Not only did I gain technical expertise in various types of coatings, but I also learned the art of writing proposals and managing technical projects,” Johnson said.

The Air Force Research Laboratory has had a close relationship with NDSU’s coatings and polymeric materials department for more than a decade. The department was instrumental in establishing the right technical capabilities when the base established a coatings research group in the early 1990’s, Johnson said.

Only five other U.S. universities offer coatings programs, so employment opportunities exceed the number of graduates, Croll said.

To encourage students to enter the field, companies and organizations fund undergraduate scholarships of up to $2,500 a year.

Global research

Last year, NDSU researchers Gordon Bierwagen, Michael Nanna and Dante Battocchi invented a new chromate-free primer technology to protect aircraft from corrosion.

The department licensed it to Akzo Nobel, a Fortune Global 500 company based in the Netherlands. It is the first environmentally friendly corrosion inhibitor that is as effective as chromate, Croll said.

“It was very challenging because we couldn’t use any toxic (materials),” Battocchi said. “Chromium is toxic. It’s very good for anti-corrosion, but it’s toxic. … We came up with this magnesium primer that seems to be very good.”

The department has received agricultural research funding to find natural products to replace petroleum chemicals in paints.

Gelling is directing research on a multiyear Army project involving military vehicle corrosion.

She is also helping Marvin Windows build windows that can better withstand corrosive coastal environments, including ocean salt spray.

“I do a lot of research that deals with how things rust,” Gelling said.

Croll has helped conserve modern art and worked on developing a removable protective coating for outdoor bronze sculptures.

“The art community wants to know what we know,” Croll said. “It’s fascinating. I love doing it.”

Gelling, Croll, and Webster are working with NASA on trying to build a better paint for NASA’s buildings and space shuttles.

“I always wanted to be an astronaut, so just to get the chance to do research on projects with NASA is really exciting,” Gelling said.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Tracy Frank at (701) 241-5526
http://www.in-forum.com/articles/printer.cfm?id=188584

Wow, very interesting. Who would have known.
CampusDakota.com

 

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