Akita Innovations welcomes Dr. Susan Tilford (PhD University of Wisconsin).  Sue joins Akita from Stainless Steel Coatings Inc. where she worked with Production and R&D on manufacturing process improvement and the development of new coating products and provided technical and product advice to customers to prevent corrosion in a range of applications.  In a previous role at Gelest, a manufacturer of silanes, silicones, and metal-organic compounds, she provided technical advice to and performed silane surface treatments for customers and developed silane-based superhydrophobic coatings.  Prior to Gelest, Sue was a Principal Investigator at DuPont in Central Research & Development where she employed homogeneous catalysts to synthesize monomers and polymers and performed polymer modification, particle surface modification, and preparation of coatings and nanocomposites. She also co-authored program proposals and conducted competitive technology assessments for DuPont.  Sue has also help positions at Amoco, NASA (Headquarters and Goddard Space Flight Center) and Northeastern University.  She is the author of over two dozen refereed publications and U.S. patents.  At Akita, she is the technical lead on a project involving protective dielectric materials and one for manufacturing technology for gas sensors.