The 39th annual Waterborne Symposium was held February 13-17 in New Orleans. Organized by the School of Polymers and High-Performance Materials at the University of Southern Mississippi, the symposium featured 50 speakers on subjects including corrosion, powder coatings, UV, pigments, additives, nanotechnology, high-throughput development and many other pertinent topics. Approximately 280 attendees and 20 tabletop exhibitors took part in the event.
A special feature at this year’s Waterborne Symposium was the first annual Sidney Lauren Memorial Lecture, which was offered by David Lauren, the son of the late Sidney Lauren. David’s lecture delivered a sense of who his father was and focused on the contributions that he made to the coatings industry. Known to friends and colleagues as Sid, Lauren was not only dedicated to his work in our industry but was also focused on its future. Throughout his life, Lauren remained active within the Coatings Industry Education Foundation (CIEF), an organization committed to increasing the number of students majoring in polymer chemistry, and working with and assisting the polymer chemistry departments of colleges and universities. Lauren delivered hundreds of lectures throughout his career at conferences such as Waterborne.