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Rewarding a career devoted to ink innovation
Mike Turner hands (right) the DSPA Award for SWervices to the Screen and Digital Printing Industry to Professor John Davison
Professor John Davison has received the DSPA Award for Services to the Screen and Digital Printing Industry. DSPA president, Peter Kiddell, said: “John likes to be known as ‘inky’ thanks to his passion for pigments, dispersions, mediums and associated technologies. His application of this knowledge has been vital to many industries. Add his unmatched skill in drying and curing techniques, plus a complete grasp of analogue and digital printing techniques, and John becomes the most complete scientist in ink technology we are likely to see.
John Davison is managing director of Davison Chemographics, a company formed in 1979 to help solve ink related print problems. John is a visiting professor for the Colour and Polymer Chemistry Department of the University of Leeds. He obtained his Doctorate at the University of Leeds where he researched the preparation of biosensors using printing techniques.
John is a Chartered Chemist; Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry; Fellow of Surface Coatings Technology; and Fellow of the Institute of Printing. He is Immediate Past President of the Oil and Colour Chemists Association.
John is chairman of the IGDS MSc Colour Application Committee and Lecturer on the IMPRESS Graphics Technology Course. He is also a member of the Screen Process Research Group; Formulation Science and Technology Group of the RSC; Colour Group and the British Society of Rheology. He serves on the BSI Graphics Technology committee and is a member of the ISO TC130 Graphics Technology Group.
Previous winner of the Award, Bill Appleton, added: “John is a highly respected member of the printing industry. After 50-years of involvement he has rightly earned the unique title of 'Ink Wizard'. During this period he has provided sophisticated inks to organisations including NASA (space shuttle programme), 3M (metal decoration) and Unilever and Cannel (glass decoration).
“For those who have the privilege to know him, he has always been approachable, open minded, humorous and a good friend.”
New beginnings
By the time this article is published, the DSPA will have seen considerable change. Mike Turner retired as director of the DSPA in December and John Keith has been appointed to the new position of business manager.
Mike Turner was the DSPA’s longest serving director during its 73-year existence. During his 18-years in office, Mike’s encyclopaedic industry knowledge has guided the organisation through many changes. Presidents, board members and members have found Mike to be supportive, knowledgeable, a lateral thinker and always discrete in his dealings. With his Government contacts, Mike has shown himself as a consummate diplomat, achieving membership and industry advantages that others would have failed to gain.
Mike is not disappearing. For example, one of his areas of interest is recycling supported PVC products where his contacts and market understanding will be essential.
Business development
As the DSPA’s new business manager, John Keith, joins from the Operations and Commercial Growth section of the British Coatings Federation. John is experienced in the coatings and chemicals industries, counting BP Oil UK and Burmah Castrol Chemicals Coatings Division among his former employers.
John is 49-years old, married with two daughters and, although hailing from the North East, has lived in the Weald of Kent since 1996. He has a degree in chemistry with geology, a passion for understanding the earth and environment, plus a creative flair expressed through painting and drawing.
DSPA UK – working behind the scenes to keep screen and digital printers going!
www.dspa.co.uk – info@dspa.co.uk
