Dr. Edward D. Cohen, a long-time AIMCAL technical consultant and expert authority in the solution web-coating industry, passed away on Aug. 6 at age 84, following a long illness. His academic career began with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University (Medford, MA) and a doctorate in Physical Chemistry from the University of Delaware (Newark, DE). He spent most of his career with DuPont in Photo Products where he is credited with bringing air-floatation drying to DuPont.  He co-founded and lead the DuPont Corporate Coating Network, as promoted to the rank of DuPont Fellow and transferred to DuPont Corporate R&D to lead the DuPont Corporate Coating Center. He retired from the company in 1998.

Cohen was founding president of the International Society of Coating Science and Technology (ISCST), and his honors include ISCST’s John Tallmadge Award for contributions to coating technology, as well as the AIMCAL President’s Award and the 2020 inaugural class of inductees to the new AIMCAL Hall of Honor.

As president of Edward D. Cohen Consulting, Inc. in Fountain Hills, AZ, he brought his clients 45+ years of experience in all aspects of the solution web-coating process. His knowledge spanned the coating and drying of thin films, coating-process development and scale-up, polyester-base development, film-defect mechanisms, defect characterization techniques, litigation support, and professional development activities for scientists.

He was an active participant in AIMCAL technical conferences long before he retired from DuPont and was named the association’s first technical consultant. As the advisor for web coating, he helped AIMCAL deliver technical expertise via active involvement in the Technical Advisory Panel, recruitment of speakers, support of the “Ask AIMCAL” function on the Website, and presentation of Converting School courses, pre-conference short courses, and moderating conference sessions.

“I didn’t have a technical background and needed someone with a real technical background to help AIMCAL move forward,” recalls Craig Sheppard, former AIMCAL executive director. “Ed was our first hire (after me) as technical consultant. We talked weekly, he gave input on major decisions about AIMCAL, and he was certainly the ‘go-to guy’ for everything that AIMCAL was going to do.

“Ed was very well respected by everyone in the industry,” Sheppard continues. “I remember being with him at a CMM show; it was like walking around with the Pope. Everyone wanted to take pictures of themselves posing with Ed or getting him to autograph their copies of his books.”

Over the years, Cohen authored or contributed to various publications for AIMCAL and the industry. He is survived by his daughter Alison and two sons, Jason and Bill. 


Source: AIMCAL