The American Coatings Association (ACA) presented its CoatingsTech Conference John A. Gordon Best Paper Award to Erik Sapper, Ph.D., principal scientist and program manager for Polymer Science, Synthesis, and Simulation Research & Technology at the Boeing Company. Sapper received the honor for his paper, “Computational Design of Aerospace Coatings,” which he presented at ACA’s 2015 CoatingsTech Conference, held March 9-11 in Louisville, Ky.

The John A. Gordon Best Paper Award recognizes the best written and associated presentation at the CoatingsTech Conference for new and original scientific research on advancements in coatings technology. Submissions are judged based on technical merit, including objectivity and experimental design, and relevance to coatings technology.

The two-and-a-half-day, biennial CoatingsTech conference is geared toward enabling coatings manufacturers, their suppliers, universities, and government representatives to share ideas, to continue to grow, and to innovate through effective collaboration.

Sapper’s paper focused on computational design as applied to the virtual development of aerospace coatings, which out of necessity operate in a harsh and corrosive environment. His presentation addressed how a computational design system can estimate the life of a range of coating systems containing different corrosion inhibitors and operating in different flight patterns or service profiles. Sapper maintains that the computational design system is constantly evolving, and is currently being used to screen, downselect, and identify novel coating systems for use in future aerospace platforms.