If you’re like me, you might not have set your sights on a career in the coatings industry during your preprofessional education. Reflecting on your own path to coatings manufacturing as a vocation, do you wonder where the new skilled professionals are going to come from? The coatings industry is not the only one struggling with a shortage of technical talent. Every enterprise dependent on STEM graduates suffers from a lack of entry level scientists and engineers. A coalition of west coast coatings manufacturers, universities and societies for coatings technology was formed to increase student awareness of the coatings industry.
Since 2017, students have spent a day with coatings companies for Shadow a Chemist Day. While initially the companies were in the Southwest recently students have also travelled to the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest. Students have a chance to engage with chemists and other coatings industry professionals in their natural habitats, so to speak. Host companies have ranged from architectural coatings makers to polymer manufacturers and companies that make graphic films for advertising and automotive wraps. The main goal is to show the students what real world jobs look like in the polymers and coatings world.
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Chris Wessels, Vice President of Product Development at Dunn-Edwards Corp. spoke with me about the origins and development of the Shadow a Chemist Day program.
How did Shadow a Chemist Day Start? When Ken Edwards joined the family business in 1958 his training in chemistry and chemical engineering led him to approach paint formulation and manufacturing from a technical point of view. His desire to see a program on the west coast to educate professional paint chemists helped lead to the founding of the bachelor’s and master’s degrees programs in polymers and coatings at California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo (aka Cal Poly SLO).
Dr. Dane Jones was one of the early polymers and coatings faculty at Cal Poly SLO. He spent time at DE in the early days of the Cal Poly coatings program to learn more about coatings and the coatings industry on the west coast. This experience led him to think about ways to introduce students to the industry. In 2017 Dr. Jones and Chris Wessels brought two students from Cal Poly SLO to the Dunn-Edwards Los Angeles lab to spend the day and the Shadow a Chemist Day program was born.
Why do you think the program has grown so much? We have concentrated on the legacy of Ken Edwards and his commitment to industry/university partnerships. Was It difficult to get industry support? No, people were eager to participate even though there were internal challenges. The financial support of local coatings technology societies has made it possible to provide travel and lodging for the students, lowering costs for the host companies. What is your advice for other groups that would like to start similar programs? “Keep it simple and focused” the university should drive the program since they are the link to the students.
I also spoke with Cara Pelling a fourth year Chemistry major at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Cara visited Dunn-Edwards in Commerce, California or Shadow a Chemist Day this year. How aware of the coatings industry as a career path were you before you took part in Shadow a Chemist? No one elaborates on what industry is, they just talk about “going into industry after school”. I was aware of the coatings and polymers industry from my own experience and my student research with Dr. Erik Sapper (a faculty member at Cal Poly SLO). I don’t think people are aware of what that particular day-to-day looks like.
How did you feel about the paint industry as a career after attending the program? “It is far more interesting than I would have initially guessed, … more to it than meets the eye on first glances”. There are many paths that you can branch out and there are a lot of things you can do. It is an interesting career path, and I could be happy doing that. “I don’t think I would have known that had I not gone to Shadow a Chemist”. Cara especially liked seeing the entire process of making paint firsthand, “I don’t think that is an experience that many people get to have.”
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