Distinguished Service Award

2003 DIVISION OF POLYMERIC MATERIALS: SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD

The recipient of the 2003 ACS Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) Distinguished Service Award is Dr. Theodore Provder. Dr. Provder currently is Director, Coatings Research Institute in the College of Technology at Eastern Michigan University and Director of the NSF I/UCRC Research Center in Coatings. He received his B.S. Degree in chemistry, Magna Cum Laude, from the University of Miami at Coral Gables, Florida in 1961 and received his Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1965 He also serves as an Adjunct Professor to the Macromolecular Science Department at Case Western Reserve University and to the Polymer and Coatings Department at North Dakota State University, and the Chemistry Department at Kent State University. He also has served as Director of Program Organization, for the Institute of Materials Science, Inc. -- New Paltz. Dr. Provder has over 35 years of industrial experience in polymers and coatings He was Principal Scientist and directed the research activities of the Materials Science and Analytical Services Department at the ICI Paints (The Glidden Company) Research Center in Strongsville, Ohio where he carried out research on polymer and coatings characterization and the physical chemistry of coatings for The Glidden Company for 29 years. While at ICI Paints, Dr. Provder managed the ICI North American networking with the academic community and nurtured the growth of the research portfolio to over $1 million per annum. He also directed the growth of polymer characterization support services to non-ICI businesses as an outsourced service. Prior to working for ICI Paints, Dr. Provder carried out research on exploratory polymers and composites at the Monsanto Company in St. Louis for over 4 years.

Dr. Provder is a past Chairman of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) and currently serves as an ACS Councilor for PMSE and a member of the ACS Divisional Activities Committee. Previously, Dr. Provder has served as an Associate on the ACS Committee on Patents and Related Matters , as a PMSE Alternate Councilor and has served as a Division Officer in the positions of Treasurer, Vice-Chair, Chair-elect and then Chair. He also served as the PMSE Membership Committee Chair and was the Treasurer of the Joint Polymer Education Committee(PolyEd) of PMSE and POLY for nine years. Dr. Provder has organized many technical symposia for PMSE over the years in the subject areas of size exclusion chromatography, particle size distribution characterization, polymer characterization, film formation, computer applications in applied polymer science and multi-dimensional spectroscopy of polymers. Many of these symposia also had PMSE workshops, organized by Dr. Provder, on the same subject associated with them. In addition many of these symposia generated peer reviewed ACS Symposium Series volumes. Dr. Provder also has served as Chairman of the Cleveland Area Research Directors(CARD) Analytical Science subgroup for four years.

Dr. Provder currently is a member of the Editorial Review Boards of the Journal of Coatings Technology(JCT) and Progress in Organic Coatings journal. He also is the editor of a JCT tutorial series on characterization and analysis of coatings and serves as a member of the Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology Publications Committee. His research interests encompass size exclusion chromatography, particle size distribution characterization, cure chemistry and physics, thermal analysis, film formation, as well as polymer and coatings analysis and characterization to advance polymer and coatings science and technology; and are reflected in over 120 publications(including 17 edited books) and 3 patents.

Dr. Provder is a recipient of the SCM Corporation Scientific and Technical Award in the area of computer modeling, and two Glidden Awards for Technical Excellence for advanced latex particle size analysis methods and instrumentation development. The disc centrifuge photosedimentometer technology developed by Dr. Provder was subsequently licensed to a vendor of particle size characterization instrumentation. In addition, Dr. Provder was awarded the coveted 1987 Joseph J. Mattiello Lectureship at the annual meeting of the Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology(FSCT). In 1989, Dr. Provder was awarded the ACS PMSE Division's Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings. In 1993 Dr. Provder was awarded the University of Missouri-Rolla Coatings Institute Distinguished Scientist Award in recognition of his distinguished work in the field of coatings and polymer science through education, research and service. In 1999, Dr. Provder was awarded first place in the Roon Award competition for best paper at the FSCT-ICE national meeting. In 2000 Dr. Provder was awarded the title of Fellow by the ACS PMSE Division, being one of sixteen members recognized in the first class of Fellows.

Past recipients of the Distinguished Service Award include:

1993	Roy W. Tess
1994	E. E. McSweeney
1995	Louis J. Nowacki
1996	Kenneth N. Edwards
1999	Clara D. Craver
2000	Sandy Labana
2001	John Lupinski
2002	Charles E. Carraher

Past Distinguished Service Award Winners

2001 Service Award Winner

, Number of access since November 07, 2000