The 2016 ACA Roon Awards were presented Monday at the plenary session of the American Coatings Conference. Teluka P. Galhenage and co-authors from North Dakota State University took first place. The jury honored their paper on poly(ethylene) glycol-modified amphiphilic siloxane polyurethane coatings and their performance as effective fouling release surfaces. Second place went to Mark D. Soucek and his co-author from the University of Akron for their work on a new low-temperature cure-on-command process for coatings. And third place was awarded to Erica Bilodeau and her co-authors from California Polytechnic State University. Their paper focused on autonomous science and decision-making for coatings discovery and testing.

The Roon Foundation Awards were established and sponsored in 1957 by Leo Roon, founder of Roxalin Flexible Finishes and the Nuodex Corporation. The Roon Award is designed to recognize technical papers representing original scientific and innovative research directly related to the protective coatings industry. Criteria include originality (40%), scientific importance (20%), practical value (20%) and quality of composition (20%).