The 2018 American Coatings Award for the most outstanding technical presentation at this year’s AC Conference was awarded to Dr. Christian Lenges and the research team from DuPont Industrial Biosciences and SYNPO. Team members include DuPont's Monica Harvey and Natnael Behabtu, and Richard Milic and Jamila Vlasakova from SYNPO. The paper is titled, Enzymatic Polymerization for Engineered Polysaccharides in Coatings, and will be presented during Session 15 on Wednesday.

DuPont Industrial Biosciences has developed a family of engineered polysaccharides ranging in molecular weight, solubility, and polymer architecture. The enzymatic polymerization process offers the opportunity to allow for the rational design of polysaccharide polymer structure, architecture and material morphology. The presentation will discuss this new bioprocess and the use of the derived class of biomaterials as components in coating applications.

The team was presented a sculpture and a $2,500 cash award.