56: Self-Healing Materials for Protection and Repair (ft. Dr.Gerald Wilson)

Self-healing materials are artificial or synthetically-created substances that have the built-in ability to automatically repair damages to themselves without any external diagnosis of the problem or human intervention.
 
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In Episode 56, we welcome Dr. Gerald Wilson, the President and CEO of Autonomic Materials, an industry leader in self-healing technologies for coatings, sealants, adhesives, and composites. He discusses the development of the coating industry’s first set of additives designed to impart self-healing functionality into industrial water-borne, solvent-borne, and powder coatings. From his research at UIUC to his work at Autonomic Materials, he also shares his extensive knowledge in self-healing polymers.
 
In this conversation, we discuss:
 
🔹️Examples of self-healing mechanisms and how they work
🔹️Why Dr. Wilson pursued both a PhD and an MBA 
🔹️Other applications for self-healing materials
🔹️ How Autonomic Materials plans to innovate to even higher levels of sustainability in the future
🔹️The challenges that are ahead for the field of self-healing polymers
🔹️Advice to students and new professionals who are in the early stages of their MSE careers
 
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Disclaimer: Any opinions expressed by either guests or hosts in this show are their own, and do not represent the opinions of the companies or organizations with which they are affiliated.