HATTIESBURG, MS – The University of Southern Mississippi School of Polymers and High Performance Materials, Hattiesburg, MS, honored and memorialized the late Sidney Lauren, a leader in the coatings industry, on September 23 with the dedication of the Sidney Lauren Memorial Learning Center. The center is made possible by a donation from the Coatings Industry Education Foundation (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 included an opening ceremony, a brief history of the long-standing relationship between the CIEF and Southern Miss, an overview of Sidney Lauren’s life and work by the Lauren children, presentation of the donation, acknowledgement of individual CIEF Sidney Lauren Memorial Scholarship recipients, a demonstration of the new Sidney Lauren Online Learning Center, and an announcement of the first annual “Sidney Lauren Memorial Lecture” to be held at the Annual Waterborne Symposium in February 2012.