Dear PSCT Members,

I want to thank Smriti Arora, BYK’s Technical Service Manager, for her interesting presentation on adhesion promoters in paint and coatings.  I also want to thank the past presidents that attended our February meeting.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we are cancelling our March meeting.   For this reason, scholarship sponsoring members need to have attended three meetings or events to meet the Scholarship requirements.

Our April meeting will be held at Cornerstone Restaurant in Aspinwall on April 13, 2026, at 6:00PM.   With this new venue, we need to give the restaurant a headcount on Friday, April 10^th.    Please be sure to sign up for dinner on our website in advance! 

During this meeting, we will welcome Dr. Crystal G. Morrison of ChemQuest a global consulting firm specializing in specialty chemicals and materials. As Vice President, she supports clients worldwide in mergers, acquisitions, business strategy, and technology development.  Dr. Morrison will be discussing Global Coatings Industry Outlook and Trends.

During the April meeting we will have our elections so if anyone is interested in open positions, please reach out to Greg Stewart at gstewart@shorecorporation.com.

As a reminder, if you know of anyone eligible for the PSCT scholarship please remind them to check our website and newsletter for information.    The deadline for applications is March 15^th. 

We are also in the process of finalizing our May social event where we will present the scholarship awards.  This is always a fun time, so please plan on attending!

I hope to see you at the meeting!

Kim Wilson

PSCT President 2025-2026

Cornerstone Restaurant
301 Freeport Rd
Pittsburgh, PA 15215

President’s Message – March 2026

Dear PSCT Members,

I want to thank Smriti Arora, BYK’s Technical Service Manager, for her interesting presentation on adhesion promoters in paint and coatings.  I also want to thank the past presidents that attended our February meeting.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we are cancelling our March meeting.   For this reason, scholarship sponsoring members need to have attended three meetings or events to meet the Scholarship requirements.

Our April meeting will be held at Cornerstone Restaurant in Aspinwall on April 13, 2026, at 6:00PM.   With this new venue, we need to give the restaurant a headcount on Friday, April 10^th.    Please be sure to sign up for dinner on our website in advance! 

During this meeting, we will welcome Dr. Crystal G. Morrison of ChemQuest a global consulting firm specializing in specialty chemicals and materials. As Vice President, she supports clients worldwide in mergers, acquisitions, business strategy, and technology development.  Dr. Morrison will be discussing Global Coatings Industry Outlook and Trends.

During the April meeting we will have our elections so if anyone is interested in open positions, please reach out to Greg Stewart at gstewart@shorecorporation.com.

As a reminder, if you know of anyone eligible for the PSCT scholarship please remind them to check our website and newsletter for information.    The deadline for applications is March 15^th. 

We are also in the process of finalizing our May social event where we will present the scholarship awards.  This is always a fun time, so please plan on attending!

I hope to see you at the meeting!

Kim Wilson

President PSCT 2025-2026

Dear PSCT Members,

I want to thank Mihael Dvorchak, technical director of Dvorchak Enterprises, LLC, for a very informative presentation on the history of Shark Skin coatings and it’s use in Aerospace coatings and the potential use in Autonomous vehicles.    I personally found it fascinating to learn how the shark skin riblet’s impact drag and antimicrobial properties.

Our February meeting will be held at Cornerstone Restaurant in Aspinwall on February 9th, 2026, at 6:00PM.   With this new venue, we need to give the restaurant a headcount on Friday, February 6^th.    Please be sure to sign up for dinner on our website by Friday! 

During this meeting, we will welcome Smriti Arora, BYK’s Technical Service Manager, focusing on General Industrial (GI) coatings.  Smriti will be discussing the role of Adhesion Promoters in Paints & Coatings.

February is also PSCT Past President month, so we would love to see our past presents in attendance!

As a reminder, if you know if anyone eligible for the PSCT scholarship please remind them to check our website for information.

I hope to see you at the meeting!

Kim Wilson

President PSCT 2025-2026

Dear PSCT Members,

Happy New Year!   I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday season.

I want to thank our November speaker, Jana Shafer from Vibrantz Technologies.  She gave a very interesting presentation on how coatings evolved and Vibrantz’s innovative colorant systems.

Twelve PSCT members, family, and friends shared a fun filled evening at the Bocce House in RIDC – O’Hara in December.  They enjoyed 90 minutes of Bocce while snacking on a nice variety of food and drinks.

Our January meeting will be held at Roland’s in the Strip on January 12, 2026, at 6:00PM.   Mike Dvorchak from Dvorchak Enterprises, LLC will speak on UV Cure ’Shark Skin bio-mimicking’ Antimicrobial surfaces for Autonomous Vehicles.  These surfaces are naturally antimicrobial without the use of added toxic substance. Future ride-hailing AVs are expected to have rapid ‘turn around’ after every use that should result in a microbial-free ‘touch surface’. AVs are expected to grow dramatically in the next 5 years as ride-hailing options replace traditional taxi and Uber style of conveyance. In addition, the presentation will discuss how coatings with anti-biofouling properties find use in hospitals and medical implants.

As a reminder, if you know if anyone eligible for the PSCT scholarship please remind them to check our website for information.

I hope to see you at the meeting.

Kim Wilson

Dear PSCT Members,

Our annual golf event on September 11th at Birdsfoot in Freeport, PA  was a great success! My thanks to all the golfers and generous sponsors who participated in this fundraising event. Your continued support allows us to award scholarships again this year. A special thank you to John D’Amico and his crew for organizing this great event.

Our October meeting will be held at Roland’s in the Strip on October 13^th at 6:00PM. Gary Orosz from PPG will speak on “The Anatomy of Electrocoat”. For over 60 years, electrocoat has been coating everything from cars and trucks to a variety of other industrial products.  This presentation will discuss how its application process works and is built to produce a high performing paint finish.

I hope to see you at the meeting.

Kim Wilson

President

PSCT 2025-2026

Dear PSCT Members,

We welcomed Bharat Mankani, PAT Group Leader – PPG Process Analytical Technology.  Bharat has spent his last 15 years dedicated to Optical Spectroscopy.  He spoke on enhancing product quality in manufacturing.  The work that Bharat oversees through analytics is meant to help production be more efficient and improve quality of manufacturing.  It was a very educational and enjoyable talk.

The April meeting will be held at PPG Place Downtown and will be on RQ Resins: Alkyd Technologies. We will also be holding election of 2025-26 PSCT Officers and Board of Directors, please plan on attending.

May’s event has finally come together and will entail another visit to Liberty Magic.  We will be seeing the magic of Joshua Jay.  This is a very nice venue and I really enjoyed our last visit there two years ago.  There is a link in the Newsletter to sign up.  I look forward to seeing everyone there.

Keep an eye on the newsletter for upcoming meetings and events and a reminder that the Coating Tech Conference will be in Pittsburgh between April 28 and 30.  We have also put out a save the date reminder for the golf outing, which will be held on September 11, 2025 at Birdsfoot.

I understand that we got a few applications for our annual scholarship and the winners will be announced in May.

Gregory Stewart, PSCT President 2024 – 2025

Dear PSCT Members,

February meeting was Past President’s Day, and I would like to thank not only all past presidents, but especially those in attendance; Jim Wasik, Mark DePasquale and Chris Chaousy.

We welcomed Ron Romer from BYK, Ron has over 40 years of technical experience in the coatings industry. Ron spoke on emerging additives technology for a greener future. He talked about the evolution of coatings going from synthetic, to the use of PFAS, on to more bio-based materials. It was a very educational and enjoyable talk.

The March meeting speaker will be Bharat Mankani as PPG Process Analytical Technology Group Leader. Speaking on PPG Process Analytical Technology: Enhancing Product Quality in Manufacturing.

April will be offsite at PPG and will be election of officers for PCST. Please plan on attending. May’s event has finally come together and will entail another visit to Liberty Magic. There will be a link in the Newsletter to sign up. I look forward to seeing everyone there.

Keep an eye on the newsletter for upcoming meetings and events and a reminder that the Coating Tech Conference will be in Pittsburgh between April 28 and 30. As a reminder, if you know if anyone eligible for the PSCT scholarship please remind them to check our website for information.

Gregory Stewart

PSC T President 2024 – 2025

Dear PSCT Members,
Thanks to Kellie Wareham from Sherwin-Williams for joining us at Roalnd’s and educating us
on the ways that Sherwin-Williams is moving forward to sustainability, including their successes
and challenges in doing so.
Membership is open and you can sign up by visiting our website www.paintsociety.org
Our next meeting will be at MATERGENICS, 100 Business Center Dr, Pittsburgh PA 15205 on
November 11th and will include a tour of the facility. Please plan on attending.
There are some exciting things in the works for this year, including our winter fun event. Keep
an eye on the newsletter or other communication for details.
I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, which is right around the corner.

Gregory Stewart, PSCT President 2024-2025

Wow, it seems like this season has flown by! On April 8th, we had our last regular monthly meeting for the 2023-2024 season at Covestro, LLC. During this meeting, the PSCT membership present elected the new Officers and Board of Directors for 2024-2025. After a presentation about Covestro, the membership toured the Covestro facility and laboratories. On May 10th, PSCT had its annual Spring social event. This
year it was held at The Roberto Clement Museum. It was a wonderful tour with a lot of information about Roberto and his life. During the event, Scholarships were presented to this year’s recipients.

I would like to thank this year’s Board and Committee members for making this year a success for all the hard work. I would also like to welcome all the new Board member’s coming onboard for the 2024-2025 year. I look forward to seeing everyone next year!

Melissa Swogger, PSCT President 2023-2024

Dear PSCT Members,

Happy Spring! I hope everyone has been enjoying the warmer weather as of late. Thank you to everyone that attended our March meeting we had an interesting talk featuring Nanotube technology. Our April meeting will be held at Covestro, LLC and will feature both a presentation and a tour of the laboratories. I would like to thank Clive Bosnyak for his March presentation. As I mentioned, the upcoming April meeting will be held at Covestro, LLC and will feature a presentation on “Looking Beyond Performance Specifications to Capitalize on New Opportunities,” by Mike Jeffries. Mike is the Business Development Manager for Industrial Coatings. Following the presentation there will be lab tours. I hope you all can join us. We will need to have RSVPs for this meeting to provide to the desk security for entrance. Please make sure to register early. We are in the process of planning the May social more information will follow once the details have been finalized.

Melissa Swogger, PSCT President 2023 – 2024