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.