The two-part special issue of Surface Innovations entitled ‘Recent Developments in Polymer Surface Modification’ is dedicated to Dr. Kashmiri L. Mittal on the occasion of his 70th birthday. This dedication recognizes his unparalleled contributions to and accomplishments in the field of adhesion science and technology.
Known to all scientists active in the area of adhesion science and technology as a founding editor of the Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology, Dr. Mittal currently serves as the editor of the new journal Reviews of Adhesion and Adhesive.
Kash, as he is affectionately known, started his scholarly crusade on arrival in 1966 in USA to study at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, where he received his PhD degree in Colloid Chemistry in 1970 after submitting his thesis on the topic ‘Factors Influencing Ultracentrifugal Stability of Oil-in-Water Emulsions’.
After a brief stint (1970–1971) as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Pennsylvania State University, he worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Electrochemistry Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania focusing on passivation of metals and heterogeneous electron transfer mechanisms. Some of his work was published in Nature in 1971.
During 1972–1994, he was associated with the IBM Corp. where he focused on surface chemical aspects of adhesion and targeted thin-layered structures for electronic subsystems under development for computing applications. This included: acid–base interactions, surface modification, silanes, tailoring interfaces in thin-film multimaterial structures and characterization of surface and interface chemistry using the then-cutting edge tools such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy.
As a member of the IBM Corporate Technical Institutes, he was also responsible for organizing and delivering courses in the broad domain of materials science to cater to the needs of various IBM locations.
Since then, he has been continually teaching and consulting worldwide in the broad areas of adhesion and surface cleaning; has initiated, organized and chaired a large number of international symposia and is the editor of 120 published books (and counting). This impressive collection of books deals with adhesion measurement, adhesion of polymeric coatings, polymer surfaces, adhesive joints, adhesion promoters, thin films, polyimides, surface modification, contact angle and wettability, surface cleaning and surfactants, among other topics.
He was a founding editor of the international Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology in 1987 and was its Editor-in-Chief until April 2012, and became the founding editor of the new journal Reviews of Adhesion and Adhesives in 2013, as well as a new book series entitled Adhesion and Adhesives: Fundamental and Applied Aspects. He has been, or still is, a member of the editorial boards of the following scientific and technical journals: Surface Innovations, Journal of Adhesion, Adhesives Age, Advances in Colloid and Interface Science, Journal of Coatings Technology, Journal of Polymer Materials, Journal of Surface Science and Technology, Particulate Science and Technology: An International Journal, Precision Cleaning, Progress in Organic Coatings, Solid State Technology and Southern Brazilian Journal of Chemistry. He is also a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Encyclopedia of Surface & Colloid Science.
His unparalleled accomplishments have been recognized worldwide by the adhesion and surfactant communities that gave numerous awards and honors to him as follows:
• Charles B. Dudley Award of ASTM International in 1990.
• Robert L. Patrick Fellow title of the Adhesion Society in 1994.
• Thomas D. Callinan Award of the Dielectric Science and Technology Division of the Electrochemical Society in 1995.
• As an honor on his 50th birthday he was recognized by the worldwide adhesion community for his contributions and accomplishments through organizing the first International Congress, in Amsterdam in 1995, on Adhesion Science and Technology with 235 papers from 38 countries presented.
• Adhesives Award of ASTM International Committee D-14 in 1997.
• Adhesives Age Award in 1997.
• John A. Wagnon Technical Achievement Award of the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society/IMAPS in 1997.
• Establishment of the biennial Kash Mittal Award by the global surfactant community in recognition of his large contribution to the field of colloid and interface chemistry in 2002.
• Doctor honoris causa title was bestowed on him by the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland in 2003.
• As an honor on his 60th birthday, a series of dedicated volumes (No. 123–126) of the Advances in Colloid and Interface Science were published in 2006.
• In 2010, two symposia were held in his honor: the first in August 2010: ‘Recent Advances in Adhesion Science and Technology’ held at the American Chemical Society meeting (Boston, USA); and the second in November 2010: ‘Surfactant Science and Technology: Retrospects and Prospects’ held at Melbourne, Australia.
• A special issue of Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects (Vol. 391, Issues 1–3, 2011) was dedicated to him to honor the publication of his 100th edited book.
• Also, two books entitled Recent Advances in Adhesion Science and Technology and Surfactant Science and Technology: Retrospects and Prospects were dedicated to him to honor the publication of his 100th edited book in 2014.
• In the same year, he was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Indian Chemical Society.
• A special issue on ‘Nanoparticle Adhesion and Removal’ of Particulate Science and Technology – An International Journal (Vol. 33, pp. 524–578, September 2015) was dedicated to him on his 70th birthday.
The editors of this special issue of Surface Innovations, together with all contributing authors, honor Dr. Kashmiri L. Mittal and extend their sincere wishes for good health and good luck to him in the years to come.
