NACE International Podcasts

Jerry Frankel, Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Director of the Fontana Corrosion Center at The Ohio State University, joins the CORROSION journal Interview Series to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on universities, labs, and the research community. Topics discussed on this episode also include the importance of in-person meetings and the CorroZoom series that Jerry launched. 

AMPP is working on a new initiative to collect all legacy and current intellectual property content (standards, conference papers, books, etc.) while using best practices in content management and its supporting technology to make it discoverable for the audience. Learn more in this exclusive interview with Mandy May, director of content management for the association, and Bob Chalker, CEO of AMPP.

Curt Hickcox, vice president of business development at Public Utilities Maintenance, Inc. (Queens Village, New York, USA), joins our "member profile" podcast series to discuss his career in the corrosion industry. Topics include corrosion mitigation strategies of the past, present, and future for electric transmission and distribution clients; the importance of contractor certifications and a commitment to safety; and how associations like SSPC, NACE, and AMPP can play key roles in career development and company growth.

Warren Brand heads Chicago Corrosion Group, a leading vendor-neutral consultancy. In this podcast, he shares many of his personal keys to success, insights on the coatings industry, and perspective on the combination of NACE International and SSPC: The Society for Protective Coatings into the newly formed Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP). In a successful career spanning more than four decades, Brand has owned an industrial tank lining and coating firm and has written dozens of blogs and technical articles in a variety of publications. Brand, who is a certified NACE Level 3 and The Society for Protective Coatings (SSPC) protective coating specialist (PCS), has earned an MBA, as well. He has managed thousands of coating installation projects and developed specs for thousands of paint and coating applications. For more information, contact Warren on LinkedIn or visit www.chicagocorrosiongroup.com.

Joe Walker, vice president and general manager of Elcometer Inc., joins our “member profile” series to share some of his company’s keys to success. Topics include Elcometer's journey as an equipment supplier to the coatings industry; strategies on how to train clients to best use their products; career highlights and expansion strategies; and much more. Walker, who is an immediate past chair of AMPP, also shares his thoughts on the merger of NACE International and SSPC: The Society for Protective Coatings — led by what he sees as benefits and priorities for the combined association and industry moving forward.

Jim Kunkle, manager of business development at AMPP, sits down with Lou Lyras, CEO of Corcon, Inc.; Sam Scaturro, president of Alpine Painting and vice chairman of the AMPP board; and Adam Christopher, government relations manager at AMPP, to discuss the surface transportation and water infrastructure bill that is currently in the U.S. Senate. Topics include what subjects the bill is designed to address, what factors are important to AMPP members and stakeholders, and how AMPP members can help support the bill's passage.

Ingrid Milošev, Head of the Department of Physical and Organic Chemistry at Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia and scientific advisor for Valdoltra Orthopaedic Hospital, joins this episode of the CORROSION journal Interview Series to discuss her career. She analyzes her work on copper alloys and biomedical corrosion, as well as some of the changes in the field over the past 30 years. Ingrid extends thanks to all of her coworkers throughout the years at the Department. For more information, contact: Ingrid Milošev, Ingrid.Milosev@ijs.si

This episode features our interview with Dr. Mehrooz Zamanzadeh, technical director and principal investigator at Matergenics and Nathan Pace, corrosion engineer for Matergenics. Dr. Mehrooz discusses potential causes of the Champlain Towers collapse in Surfside, Florida, and he offers safety recommendations for coastal buildings nearby and nationwide. Dr. Zamamzadeh is a Fellow of NACE international and ASM; a NACE Certified Specialist in coatings, cathodic protection, and materials selection and design; and an AMPP Instructor for condition assessment and corrosion engineering.

In the debut episode of AMPPLIFY, Jim Kunkle and Dave Evans explore the new AMPP QP Accreditation Programs, featuring QP-1, QP-2, QP-3, QP-5, QP-6, QP-8, and QS-1.

Cindy O'Malley, Chief Operations Officer and AMPP Global Center Executive Director, joins our podcast to discuss corrosion concerns in residential buildings and the possible implications of corrosion in the Champlain Towers collapse in Surfside, Florida, USA.

Oladis Troconis de Rincón, the founder and former Director of 30 years of the Centro de Estudios de Corrosion at the University of Zulia (LUZ) in Venezuela, joins the CORROSION journal Interview Series to discuss her career in corrosion. Currently an advisor at LUZ and a Research Scientist at UTSA, Oladis talks about why she switched from studying polymers to corrosion, starting the corrosion program at LUZ, and international collaborations and projects she has worked on over her 40+ year career.  For more information, contact: Oladis Troconis de Rincón at oladistdr@gmail.com or oladis.troconis@utsa.edu.

Tristan de Servins and Solveig Parent of Heuristech and Dr. Homero Castaneda-Lopez of Texas A&M University join the MP Interview Series to discuss their Differential Reflectometry Mapping (DRM) technology, which was recently named as a winner in the 2021 MP Corrosion Innovation of the Year Awards program. DRM is described as a novel technology that uses electromagnetic reflectometry to assess the state of a coating on buried pipeline networks. This technology allows users to detect, locate, and characterize coating defects, including delaminations, and the experts offer more background details on this podcast. DRM is non-invasive and ideally suited to assess pipelines in cities, under roads or waterways, and in other challenging environments. 

Marcelo Senatore, technical marketing manager for the Americas region at Sandvik, joins our podcast to discuss the features of his company’s new Sanicro 35 alloy. The technology was honored in the recent 2021 MP Corrosion Innovation of the Year Awards program. With an official launch in August 2020, the alloy is the latest addition to Sandvik’s growing Sanicro portfolio of nickel alloys and austenitic stainless steels (SS). According to the company, it offers high-performance, strength, and corrosion resistance at a wide range of temperatures. Designed for extremely corrosive environments and seawater applications, it is described as ideal for heat exchangers and hydraulic and instrumentation tubing. In the episode, Senatore discusses end users and applications for the alloy; how Sandvik is overcoming many of the historical limitations related to various SS grades and nickel alloys; results from field testing and the path to commercialization; what the next steps are; and much more.

Kamal Taher, Director of Global Operations at AMPP, joins our podcast to explain how his department is helping members and customers around the world adjust to the combination of NACE International and SSPC: The Society for Protective Coatings. Topics include common questions and feedback from members in different world regions; priorities in blending NIICAP and SSPC QP contractor accreditation programs; strategies to overcome concerns and objections; subject areas and markets for growth in corrosion control; and much more.

Dr. Patrick Dodds, founder and CEO of Hexigone, joins our podcast to discuss his company’s high-performance corrosion inhibitors — which were recently honored in the 2021 MP Corrosion Innovation of the Year Awards. Known as Intelli-ion, Hexigone's range of products replace toxic chemicals with safer, smarter, and sustainable inhibitors that bring coatings to life by enabling them to react and protect “on demand” against corrosion. This is done by incorporating an active ingredient which has never before been used effectively within coatings. In the episode, Dodds explains the latest results from the field, as well as the next steps moving forward.

Lesley Martinez, Manager of Conferences at AMPP, joins our podcast to recap the recently completed CORROSION 2021 Virtual Conference & Expo. Martinez shares highlights from the show and lessons learned from the virtual experience, along with a preview of the upcoming transition to in-person events. She also offers an early look at the Coatings+ 2021 show and the first AMPP Annual Conference + Expo in March 2022.

Tony da Costa, vice president of engineering at MOBILTEX, joins the podcast to discuss recent advancements in remote cathodic protection (CP) monitoring.  His company's CorTalk RMU1+INT1 package, which was honored as an MP Corrosion Innovation Awards winner, is designed to enable utilities and pipeline operators to remotely perform interruption, obtain CP measurement data, and dramatically reduce travel to remote locations. In this episode, da Costa shares user feedback on the technology and related trends, along with unique insight and perspective from his decades in the corrosion industry.

In a new series spotlighting winners of the 2021 MP Corrosion Innovation Awards, Northrop Grumman's Harvey Hack and Jim Wandgassen join us to discuss the technology behind the NiobiCon underwater electrical connector. Topics include the historical limitations of connector technologies; how NiobiCon overcomes those challenges and offers additional benefits; recent field testing results; and the path to commercialization.

Narasi Sridhar, CEO of MC Consult LLC, shares some of the highlights from his 40-year career in corrosion. He discusses how creativity and openness to possibilities in your career can lead you to unexpected places, such as working on a project for NASA to detect past life on Mars with Raman spectroscopy. Other topics in this episode of the CORROSION journal Interview Series include the importance of mentors and the need for risk management.

Danos, Graco, and Tesla NanoCoatings recently worked together to develop a functional non-slip deck coating for offshore clients. Their work, which was profiled in Materials Performance (MP) magazine, explains how a coatings applicator was able to overcome many traditional challenges through the use of an innovative protective coatings pump design with a new single-coat carbon nanotube non-slip deck coat slurry.   In this episode, Danos' Scott Soto, Graco's John Lihwa, and Tesla's Joe Davis explore lessons learned from their collaboration, as well as future opportunities when using the system.