Jim Reader graduated from the University of Warwick (UK) in 1988 with a Ph.D. in Chemistry. He joined Air Products and Chemicals in 1988 in Manchester (UK) as a Research Chemist and later an Application Development Chemist for the Epoxy Additives business. He then became Technical Manager for the Air Products Specialty Additives business in 1996 based in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and has worked in Europe and Asia before becoming a Lead Chemist in Allentown, PA in 2008. Dr. Jim Reader joined Evonik Corporation as a Senior Technical Manager in January 2017.  He has extensive experience in the both the development and application of surfactants and defoamers in many different applications including paints, coatings, graphic arts, adhesives, concrete admixtures and the production of latex gloves.  He is the inventor of one patent and has written over 20 technical papers.