Charles R. Hegedus, of Air Products and Chemicals, named 2007 FSCT Heckel Award winner.

The Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology is pleased to announce that Dr. Charles R. Hegedus, Materials Scientist, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., has been named the 2007 recipient of the organization's highest honor--the George Baugh Heckel Award.

Presentation of the Heckel Award will be made during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the FSCT, Tuesday, October 2, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, Ont., Canada.

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Considered the most prestigious of FSCT awards, the George Baugh Heckel Award honors an individual whose contributions to the organization have been outstanding.

Established in 1951, the award is dedicated to the memory of George Baugh Heckel, who served as temporary chairman when the Federation was organized in 1922, and as secretary for many years thereafter.

Federation Contributions

A member of FSCT for over 28 years, Dr. Hegedus has been actively involved in many committees and activities of the organization. As Chair of the Publications Committee, he headed the efforts to develop two new FSCT journals: JCT Research and JCT CoatingsTech. For this achievement, he was awarded the FSCT President's Award in 2003. A member of the Editorial Review Board for the original JCT, he now serves on the Management Board and acts as a Technical Editor and Editorial Review Board member for the Journal of Coatings Technology and Research.

Dr. Hegedus was named Mattiello Memorial Lecturer of the FSCT in 2004. He has served as chairman of the FSCT Corrosion Committee, Roon Awards Committee, and Mattiello Lecture Committee. He is currently a Trustee of the Coatings Industry Education Foundation and heads the FSCT/University Liaison Committee.

Heckel Award Committee Chair, Dr. Ray A. Dickie, notes, "Charlie is one of the most level-headed, sensible, and reliable people I know. He's one of those folks who can be relied upon to do what needs to be done--and to do it quietly, efficiently, and with a minimum of fuss. My interactions with Charlie have mostly had to do with various aspects of the Federation's publication portfolio--an area to which he has made seminal contributions. He led the transformation of JCT into JCT CoatingsTech and JCT Research when he chaired the Publications Committee, and helped shape the philosophy and content of both publications. He remains a key player in the publication process as a Technical Editor for the new Journal of Coatings Technology and Research. The Heckel Award is a well-earned recognition of Charlie's accomplishments and contributions to the Federation."

Educational and Professional Background

Dr. Hegedus obtained a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Materials Engineering from Drexel University. Performing his doctoral studies under Professor Ihab Kamel, he investigated chemical interactions between pigment particles and polymers using inverse gas chromatography, flow calorimetry, rheology characterization, and pigment packing modeling. He related these findings to explain mechanical property effects in applied coating systems.

From 1976 to 1993, Dr. Hegedus worked in the Aerospace Materials Division of the Naval Air Development Center in Warminster, PA. During the latter seven years of this period, he was the Leader of the Protective Coatings Group, where he developed coatings to be used on naval aircraft and other military equipment for corrosion prevention and detection/weapon countermeasures. Dr. Hegedus performed fundamental research on organic coating structure, property and performance relationships, as well as investigating and resolving corrosion problems and coatings failures in the field. Probably his most significant accomplishment in the field of corrosion prevention was the development of UNICOAT, a self-priming topcoat for high performance applications. This material was one of the first corrosion preventive coating systems for aluminum that did not contain chromated inhibitors. In addition, it demonstrated the benefits of multi-functional coatings, which eliminate the need for multi-coat systems, thus reducing emissions, expense, and weight. This invention and its implementation garnered him the Office of Naval Technology's Exploratory Development Award and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator's Award for Pollution Prevention.

In 1988, Dr. Hegedus was honored with NADC's Outstanding Science and Engineering Award. Dr. Hegedus also received the Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology Corrosion Publication Award in 1993 for his work in the area of coatings characterization and property analysis.

In 1993, Dr. Hegedus joined Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Allentown, PA. Since that time, he has worked in various research and development groups within their Materials Research Center and the Performance Products Division. He is responsible for research and development of nanoparticle dispersions, polymers and other raw material products. His work in the area of film formation of waterborne polyurethanes earned an FSCT Roon Award in 1995. Later, Dr. Hegedus worked with Fritz Walker, Frank Pepe, John Dickenson, and Renee Keller to develop novel epoxy-water copolymers. They were the recipients of an FSCT Roon Award in 2001 for the publication of this research.

Industry-Related Activities

Author of over 65 papers and publications, Dr. Hegedus holds 21 patents with four patents pending. In addition to contributions stemming from his research and development, he has served on a number of industry-related committees. He has been a course lecturer for FSCT, ASM International, National Association for Corrosion Engineers, and Drexel University. Twice he has been the invited Keynote Speaker for the Waterborne, High-Solids and Powder Coatings Symposium. Dr. Hegedus is a member of the Philadelphia Society for Coatings Technology, The Society for Protective Coatings, and the American Chemical Society Division of Polymer Science and Materials.