Peter Zarras received his BS in Chemistry from Adelphi University in 1984. Upon graduation from Adelphi he worked in an environmental laboratory (NyTest Labs) first as a technician and then as a manager of the metals department. Additional industrial experience was obtained as a QC/QA Manager for a start-up pharmaceutical firm (Hi-Tech Pharmaceutical) on Long Island. He completed his MS (Chemistry) in 1989 and Ph.D (Polymer Chemistry) in 1996 from Polytechnic University under the direction of Dr. Otto Vogl. After completing his Ph.D, he received an ASEE post-doctoral fellowship at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake, California under the direction of Dr. John D. Stenger-Smith. Where he has served as a research chemist since October 1996. His research interests include the synthesis of conductive polymers for corrosion prevention, smart coatings, batteries and supercapacitors, non-linear optical polymers (NLOPs), polyimides for advanced devices, and electro-active polymers for light emitting diodes. He has authored and/or co-authored over 100 publications, 10 patents and has organized several symposia at national and regional ACS Meetings. He is a member of the ACS POLY, PMSE and ORG Divisions, AAAS, and MRS.
Professor Soucek in the Department of Polymer Engineering at The University of Akron specializes in the development of new coatings. He has been awarded with the prestigious Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings by the American Chemical Society’s Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering. During Soucek’s career in the field of polymer coatings, he has made significant scientific contributions to the field, pioneered innovations and trained students in cutting-edge coatings technology. In 2004 and 2005, Soucek received honorable mention for the Gordon Award for his core-shell latex work and UV-curing of unsaturated polyesters. Also in 2004, he was awarded the Innovation Award by Radtech (the European association for UV/EB technology) for his work in UV-curable coatings. Soucek received The Society for Protective Coatings Editor’s Award for his work “Self-Stratifying Corrosion Resistant Coatings, and has published more than 150 peer-reviewed technical papers on coating science, 15 book chapters and two books.
Dr. Tiwari specializes in the development of novel materials, such as coatings for corrosion protection, bio-inspired biocompatible materials, hybrid materials for fiber reinforced composites, graphene films and coatings. He has invented seven international patent-pending technologies that have been transferred to industries, including a unique non-carcinogenic corrosion protection coating SiloXelTM that is targeting the $300 million non-chromate conversion coating market. He has been actively engaged in various fields of polymer science, engineering, and technology and has published several scientific peer reviewed journal papers, book chapters and books related to material science. He is an active reviewer of several leading international journals and acts as associate editor of the journal Advances in Chemical Engineering and Science.