Thomas Bernecki is associated with Northwestern's Advanced Coatings Technology Group. He has been at Northwestern for over a decade, and was director of the University's Federal Highway Administration-funded Center for Coatings and Materials for Highway Construction. An internationally recognized authority on thermal spray processes, his research interests include addressing infrastructure maintenance policies and practices, including evaluating surface tolerant paints for over-coating and development of improved accelerated coating testing procedures. His involvement with the Institute has included development and evaluation of surface-tolerant coatings for structural steel.