Washington, D.C., Feb. 27, 2025 — The American Coatings Association (ACA) is pleased to announce that Dr. Lipiin Sung, research physicist and project leader in the Infrastructure Materials Group of the Materials and Structural Systems Division of the Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will deliver the Mattiello Memorial Lecture at ACA’s 2025 CoatingsTech Conference. The CoatingsTech Conference — ACA’s leading technical event — will be held April 28-30, 2025, at the Omni William Penn in Pittsburgh, and embrace the theme, “Coatings and Technologies for a Resilient Future.”
At the conference, Dr. Sung will receive the Mattiello Memorial Lecture Award, which recognizes an individual who has made outstanding contributions to science, technology, and/or engineering related to the coatings industry. Joseph J. Mattiello, whose memory is commemorated by this award, did much to expand the application of science in the decorative and protective coatings field.
Dr. Lipiin Sung
Dr. Sung’s lecture, titled “Measurement Science for Coatings: from Color Appearance to Long-Term Durability Assessment,” will address a range of considerations, from color appearance measurement and rending; scratch and mar characterization; interface/interphase characterization; structure–property– performance relationship; long-term durability assessment; the linkage (methodology and data) of the material properties to long-term durability; as well as service life prediction. She will also present her current research on circular economy (micro- and nano-plastics) and a commercially viable version of an accelerated weathering device, known as the Simulated Photodegradation via High Energy Radiant Exposure (SPHERE), for wide adoption in the future.
Dr. Sung has over 25 years of experience in the coatings industry, beginning in 1999 as a NIST research associate and becoming a federal employee in 2001. She develops characterization tools, test methods, modeling approaches, and improvement of environmental stress simulation for industrially relevant multi-layer, multi-component polymeric systems used in infrastructure applications. From 2008 to 2024, she was the director and project leader of the NIST/Industry Polymer Surface and Interfaces consortium.
Dr. Sung has participated in and served as a committee member of the former the Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology’s (FSCT) Annual Technical Program, its successor FutureCoat!, and ACA’s CoatingsTech conferences. She serves on ACA’s publications editorial boards and subcommittees, supporting symposia on coatings technology at ACA and the American Chemical Society. She is the recipient of several coatings-related awards for her research, including FSCT’s 2004 John A. Gordon Best Paper Award, NIST’s Bronze Medal Award, and ACA’s 2014 Roon Foundation Award (2nd place).
Dr. Sung received a B.S. in Physics from the National Taiwan Normal University (Taipei, Taiwan) in 1983, and Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1993.
In addition to the prestigious Mattiello Memorial Lecture, the CoatingsTech Conference will feature five pre-conference technical short courses; two days of some 40 multi-track sessions spanning nine technical topics; and a full-day session focused on Service Life Prediction.
For more information on the 2025 CoatingsTech Conference, please visit /aca-events/2025-ctc/.
The American Coatings Association (ACA) is a voluntary, nonprofit trade association working to advance the needs of the paint and coatings industry and the professionals who work in it. The organization represents paint and coatings manufacturers, raw materials suppliers, distributors, and technical professionals. ACA serves as an advocate and ally for members on legislative, regulatory and judicial issues, and provides forums for the advancement and promotion of the industry and coatings science.