Mitchell A. Winnik wins Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings

Citation

(1999), "Mitchell A. Winnik wins Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings", Pigment & Resin Technology, Vol. 28 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/prt.1999.12928daf.003

Mitchell A. Winnik wins Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings

Mitchell A. Winnik wins Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings

Keywords: Awards, Coatings, University of Toronto

Dr Mitchell A. Winnik, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada will receive the Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings for 1999. The announcement was made by the Officers and the Award Committee of the Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) of the American Chemical Society.

Professor Winnik is well known for a broad range of innovative studies of synthetic polymers at the molecular level. While he is best known for his applications of fluorescence spectroscopy to polymer systems, his research, particularly on coatings, has embraced a broad spectrum of novel techniques. He was the first to use atomic force microscopy in studies of film formation from latex dispersions, and the first to use laser confocal fluorescence microscopy in the study of polymer blends. Through collaborations with scientists at other universities, he was an early innovator in both freeze fracture electron microscopy and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry in their application to polymers.

A principal focus of Dr Winnik's research is the formation of films from latex dispersions, the basis of waterborne coatings technology. With his students he discovered that water evaporation from dispersions containing a blend of hard and soft latex particles is remarkably slower than from dispersions of the individual particles, thus implying that models of the drying process developed during the past 40 years are incorrect. His major contribution to the coatings field has been the development of a technique based on energy transfer measurements to study the rate of polymer diffusion across particle-particle interfaces in latex films. This is the process at the molecular level that leads to strength and cohesion in water-based coatings. This technique has allowed him and his students to examine the influence on the polymer diffusion rate of a variety of additives commonly employed in coatings. In this way they have been able to provide a mechanistic understanding at the molecular level of how these additives work.

Dr Winnik has also made seminal contributions to the structures of micelies formed from water-soluble polymers bearing hydrophobic substituents; these polymers are used as associative thickeners in a variety of industrial products such as water-based paints. Using light scattering, pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometry, and fluorescence quenching experiments, he and his students have determined the number of hydrophobic substituents that come together to form a micelle. By combining these results with rheology measurements, they were able to calculate the proportions of individual and bridged micelles in solution and their response to shear and extensional flow.

Many of these experiments were carried out in collaboration with other research groups at the University of Toronto and with academic and industrial scientists across North America, Europe and Asia. Dr Winnik believes that collaboration is a great teacher and stimulates creative ideas. He has taken advantage of these collaborations to introduce new techniques into polymer science, and to investigate problems in the coatings field that had previously received little attention from academic scientists.

Dr Winnik holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University (1965) and a doctorate degree in Chemistry from Columbia University (1969), where he worked with Professor Ronald Breslow. He was a postdoctoral associate with Professor George S. Hammond at the California Institute of Technology before joining the faculty at the University of Toronto in 1970. He received tenure as an organic chemist in 1975, and following a sabbatical in France, began research on polymers in 1978. Dr Winnik was promoted to Professor in the Department of Chemistry in 1980, and in 1998 was named University Professor, the University of Toronto's highest award in recognition of scholarly excellence.

Dr Winink holds 11 patents and is the author of more than 300 technical papers. He won Roon Awards from the Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology in 1991, 1995 and 1998 (all first prize). He also served on the Editorial Review Boards of Macromolecules, the Journal of Polymer Science (Polymer Physics), the Canadian Journal of Chemistry, and Langmuir. Dr Winnik chaired the Polymers (West) Gordon Research Conference in 1992, and served on several NATO and IUPAC Commissions. He was the recipient of the 1995 Bell Forum Award for excellence in University-Industry research collaboration, and 1996 received an Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award. His research has been supported by NSERC Canada, particularly through its University-Industry program, by ESTAC Canada (a consortium of industries and universities), and by two Province of Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCMR and MMO). Professor Winnik will receive the Tess Award from Dr David A. Cocuzzi, chairman of the PMSE Division, on Monday, August 23, 1999 during the 218th meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans, Louisiana. Professor Winnik will present an Award Address at that time. An evening reception in honor of Professor Winnik will follow the Award Symposium.

The Tess Award is presented annually by the Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Technology in recognition of outstanding contributions to coatings science and technology. It is funded by a grant to the Division from Dr and Mrs Roy W. Tess. The purpose of the Award is to encourage interest and progress in coatings, and to recognize significant contributors to the field. The Award consists of a plaque and a cash prize.

Distinguished past recipients of the Tess Award include: William D. Emmons (1986); Marco Wismer (1987); Zeno W. Wicks, Jr (1988); Theodore Provder (1989); Walter K. Asbeck (1990); Kenneth L. Hoy (1991); Ray A. Dickie (1992); Larry F. Thompson (1993); Werner Funke (1994); John L. Gardon (1995); John K. Gilham (1996); Werner J. Blank (1997); Loren W. Hill (1998).