Our Team

Our team has extensive experience and expertise in research and development, customer service, new technology start-up, technical sales, and new technology implementation in manufacturing facilities. We are also experienced in chemical handling and use, silane technology, business management, and intellectual property protection. Our senior team members include:

■ Dr. William Vanooij, Chief Technology Officer
■ Max Sorenson, Chief Executive Officer
■ Dr. Danqing "Maggie" Zhu, Senior Coatings Engineer
■ Wenchao 'Wayne' Zhang, Research Engineer

We are committed to providing environmentally friendly, quality solutions to customer needs.

Dr. William Vanooij

is an Emeritus Professor in Materials Science at the University of Cincinnati,
where he led an active research program in organofunctional silanes, coatings, corrosion, and corrosion protection for many years. He co-founded ECOSIL in 2003 to develop his academic inventions into commercial products. He holds a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University in Delft, The Netherlands, and has previously held several academic and industrial positions in Europe and the USA. He is author or co-author of over 350 publications, inventor of 31 US patents and 38 EP patents. While at UC he filed 100+ invention disclosures.

■ Adjunct Professor, POSTECH University, Pohang, Korea 2007-2010
■ 2nd ITEC Distinguished Technology Achievement Medal. Sept. 2010
■ American Chemical Society, Melvin Mooney Distinguished Technology Award 2010
■ The Ohio Academy of Science (OAS) First Ohio Patent Award 2010
■ UC Established Entrepreneur Award 2009
■ UC Emerging Entrepreneur Award 2005
■ Founding Editor of the Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology
■ Editorial Board Progress in Organic Coatings

Max Sorensen

holds a Bachelors Degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Utah and a Masters Degree in Industrial Management from Purdue University. His experience includes 24 years of general and senior management in the metals industry. He has served as a Senior Officer at public companies in manufacturing and technology related areas. Max has been instrumental in organizing and carrying out business plans for several start-up companies over the past 11 years -- all of which are still in business.

has an extensive background in silane use for corrosion protection and adhesion. She received her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 2005. From 1997 to 2004, she worked as a Graduate Research Assistant under Dr. Vanooij and participated in 3 patents, numerous papers, and several projects in the field of metal pretreatments and coatings. She obtained her B.E. and M.S degrees from the University of Science and Engineering in Beijing, China. She also had several years of industry experience in metals treatment and processing of superalloys before embarking on her Ph.D.

Dr. Danqing "Maggie" Zhu

is Ecosil's Research Engineer. Wayne received his M.S degree in Materials Engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 2009. He has been working for ECOSIL since February 1, 2009 on a wide variety of ECOSIL R&D and government-funded projects. Wayne is a specialist on coating application technologies.