Southern Mississippi to honor coatings industry leader with new center

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Southern Mississippi to honor coatings industry leader with new center
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
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8 x' R& d# K: P8 i' F' VHattiesburg, MS - The University of Southern Mississippi School of Polymers and High Performance Materials will honor and memorialize the late Sidney Lauren, a leader in the coatings industry, on Friday September 23 with the dedication of the Sidney Lauren Memorial Learning Center. The center is made possible by a generous donation from the Coatings Industry Education Foundation (CIEF). Through its history, the university’s polymer science program has had a mutually beneficial relationship with the coatings industry and its scientific leaders. Among those was Lauren, who also held a principal role in the CIEF. The CIEF has been a generous contributor of scholarships to polymer science students for more than a quarter of a century, including many who graduated from Southern Miss. The event will begin with an opening ceremony at 9 a.m. in the auditorium of the Polymer Science Research Center on the Hattiesburg campus. Lauren, who died July 13, served as executive director of the Coatings Research Group 1972-1985. He began his career in the industry with the C.J. Osborn Co. and then joined the Johns-Manville Corporation in 1954. He worked briefly with Reichhold Chemicals, but returned to Johns-Manville for another decade, serving as chief of its Finishing section. After retiring from CRGI, he worked with the California Products Corporation.