My main reason for publishing this web-site is to help make contacts with researchers, engineers, and scientists who are interesting in coating quality/uniformity and designing methods for studying chemical and physical factors that impact coating quality.

        Therefore: If you are interested in these topics and/or related coating quality issues, then I urge you to introduce yourself via e-mail. I'm interested in knowing who you are, what you study or work on, and what kinds of coating quality problems/solutions you have discovered or developed.
 
        In addition, I have a research project that has just been funded by NSF. Its start date is June 1st 1998 and will involve optical/spectroscopic studies of the solution chemistry in real-time using environment/chemically-sensitive dye molecules. I will be studying spin-coating of a variety of sol-gel solutions using these dye molecules as probes of the chemical and physical effects occurring in solution during spinning (composition change through evaporation, viscosity, gelation, etc.).
 
Click Here for NSF Proposal Project Summary
 
         Now that this work is funded, I'm interested in possible collaborations in this and related areas. For example, if there are enough people interested in this area then it would make sense to organize conferences sessions together. Or, low cost experimental collaborations could be designed, evolving, possibly, to the submission of collaborative proposals to other agencies. Whatever your ideas in this area, I again urge you to introduce yourself via e-mail and then we can discuss how to proceed or plan our collaborations, etc.
 
        Finally, if you work for a company that has a substantial stake in selling coating solutions or making devices where uniform coatings are critical for quality assurance and product yield, then it might make sense for you to support research on some aspect of coating uniformity within our labs.

        In the long run I anticipate trying to pull together enough companies to try for an NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center. If this were to come together, it would be a very productive investment for each of the member companies. Each would pay an annual membership fee and then receive the data gathered by a dozen or more related research projects in the area of coating uniformity and quality. In addition, member companies would help guide the direction of the research activities carried out by the center.

        For these last two areas, please forward this Web-page to the relevant R&D Manager within your company who would be able to negotiate such financial commitments. I would be happy to discuss the various costs and possibilities with them.

Sincerely,
Dunbar P. Birnie, III
Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Phone (520) 621-6780
FAX (520) 621-8059