OUR TEAM

BIOGRAPHY FOR SUSAN WHITWORTH TAIT, PH.D.

Dr. Susan Tait is the Executive Director and chief financial officer of both Aristartec® LLC and Pair O Docs® Professionals L.L.C. She has a bachelor’s degree in physics; a masters degree in administration and a Ph.D. in continuing professional education. Sue also provides lab support and research design plus coordinates the Pair O Docs® Elements of Spray Package Corrosion short course.

 

BIOGRAPHY FOR WILLIAM STEPHEN TAIT, PH.D.

Dr. Steve Tait is the Chief Science Officer and Principal Consultant for Aristartec® LLC and Pair O Docs® Professionals L.L.C. Steve has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry; a masters degree in chemical engineering and a Ph.D. in materials engineering. His unique combination of experience and academic degrees provides a broad knowledge background for his and research in anti-corrosion technology and electrochemical corrosion testing. 

He has over 40 years of experience with all aspects of anti-corrosion technology, and investigating failure of metal structures associated with corrosion. Steve developed numerous corrosion prevention and control programs for food and aerosol containers, vacuum-deposited coatings on glass, consumer electrical appliances, chemical processing equipment and chemical reactors, gas refinery cooling towers, and both commercial and consumer transportation vehicle coatings. 

He is an industry leader in electrochemical corrosion testing and reliability engineering for consumer products packaging. He holds 8 U.S. and foreign patents on corrosion measurement instruments; aerosol container crevice test fixtures and corrosion inhibitors. He is the inventor of the Tait Cell, GEN2, GEN3and GEN4 Multi-cells; plus the new FlexiCell test cell technology. All these cells are used for predictive electrochemical corrosion testing. 

Steve developed and managed a world-class corrosion research and testing laboratory while at S. C. Johnson. This laboratory included two satellite laboratories in Europe and China. Test results from these labs allowed low risk rapid introduction of new products. Earlier at Petrolite Corporation (a specialty chemical manufacturer for the petrochemical industry) he developed corrosion prevention and control programs for the petrochemical industry. 

Steve is an accomplished author. He wrote the textbook on electrochemical corrosion testing–over 3,000 copies of this book were sold worldwide to industries, universities, libraries and government laboratories. He current writes Corrosion Corner–a monthly column about spray package corrosion–in the Spray Technology and Marketing magazine. He has authored and presented over 100 technical papers, seminars and book Chapters. His teaching experience spans 40+ years and includes traditional university classes and continuing professional education short courses. Dr. Tait was also a full adjunct professor for the University of Wisconsin from 2000 through 2003. 

He is certified by NACE International as a Corrosion Specialist. He is one of 17 corrosion specialists worldwide who specialize in corrosion inhibitor development. He is a member of NACE International, the Electrochemical Society and ASM International. 

Please contact Dr. Steve Tait at 608 831 2076 or rustdr@aristartec.com to discuss your company’s corrosion testing and/or consulting needs.