A round of APPLAUSE for the following industry leader.

Peter D. Gabriele of Adhesives Research, Inc., Glen Rock, Pa., was awarded the Pressure Sensitive Tape Council's (PSTC) 2001 Carl A. Dahlquist Award, which is given annually for the most technically outstanding paper presented at the PSTC's yearly technical seminar. This year's seminar, TECH XXIV: Sharing Global Pressure Sensitive Tape Innovations, was held May 2-4, 2001, in Orlando, Fla. The award was created in honor of Carl A. Dahlquist's many contributions to the pressure sensitive adhesive tape industry.

The winning paper, entitled Infrared Imaging: A Complementary Tool to AFM for Adhesive Surface Analysis, was co-authored by Herbert Hand, Adhesives Research, Inc.; David Schaefer and Joshua Robinson, Department of Physics, Astronomy and Geoscience, Towson University; and Andinet Amare, Bio-Rad, Inc. The paper describes the results of a study that combined atomic-force microscopy (AFM) and Fourier Transform-Infrared (FT-IR) imaging to see if information from these two powerful analytical tools would complement surface analysis of adhesive systems, and provides insight into the relationship of adhesive structure and property.

Gabriele has over 25 years of experience in the adhesives and coatings industries. Currently, he is the technology manager for the Splicing Business Unit at Adhesives Research. Gabriele holds several patents, has written numerous technical articles and is a past recipient of the Roon Foundation Award, presented for outstanding contributions in the scientific advancement of additives technology.

This year, a panel of industry experts evaluated 24 papers presented during TECH XXIV based on the criteria of topic choice, writing style, presentation, research and supporting documentation to determine the most technically outstanding paper. This record number of technical papers included presentations from eight different countries, with more than 18 countries represented overall at the global conference.