NEW ORLEANS - Organizers of the 43^rd Annual International Waterborne, High‐solids and Powder Coatings Symposium have announced the program line‐up. The symposium will be held in the New Orleans Marriott from January 31 to February 5, 2016. Short courses will be held January 31 to February 2, followed by the Technology Showcase Exhibit Hall from February 2‐4, and the main technical symposium February 3‐5.

The conference technical sessions will include Waterborne, Nanotube, Bio‐based, Academia, Corrosion, Additives and a General Session for all other talks.

The 2016 Plenary speaker is Kurt Olson, Fellow, Coatings Research and Development, from PPG Industries. Olson will speak on Wednesday morning at 8:00 am. Keynote speaker John Gilbert, Sr. Vice President, Research and Development, BEHR Process Corp., will follow Olson’s address. Rounding out the opening session will be the event’s expert advisory panel.

The annual Sidney Lauren Memorial Lecture will be given by Kristen Blankenship, AGC Chemicals America's and winner of the Siltech Best Paper Award for Innovation at the 2015 Waterborne Symposium.

Student's Day will be on Thursday, February 4, 2016, and will feature a student poster session/competition, resume books, informal interviews and a student reception. This is a great time to come and meet the students and see the work that is being done at the School of Polymers and High Performance Materials at The University of Southern Mississippi.

Other organizations represented with papers this year include: BASF SE, Nasa, Dow Coatings Materials, Croda, Nuplex Resins, Cardolite Corp., Dow Chemical Co., Worlee Chemie, Battelle, Molecular Rebar Design, Berger Paints India, Mississippi State University, Stoney Brook University, University of Concepcion, The University of Southern Mississippi, Evonik, Siltech, Dow Corning, BYK Chemie GmbH, Axalta Coatings Systems, Troy Corp., Clariant, Oxiteno, Emerlad Kalama Chemicals, Colmet Engineered Finishing Solutions, Rust‐Oleum Corp., Argex, TBF Environmental Technology Inc., STERIS, Wacker and more.

Short courses to be offered at the event include Fundamentals of Coatings (optional 1 day add-on for Sunday, January 31, 2016), Science of Formulating and Reformulating to Waterborne Coatings. More information about the short courses is available at www.waterbornesymposium.com.