Dr. Roper has a B.S. in Chemistry from Furman University in South Carolina and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Chicago. He also held a Post-doctoral appointment at Northwestern University. Roper joined The Dow Chemical Company in 1983 and in 1986 he started working in the area of paper coatings which has continued to the present time. Most recently Roper was a Fellow in Formulation Sciences Core R&D until his retirement from Dow Chemical in March 2018.
Some of Roper’s key areas of expertise include emulsion polymerization, paper coating application methods, and rheology. His primary technical contributions to the paper industry have focused on developing fundamental understanding in the area of coater runnability starting with short dwell coating followed by metered size press coating and most recently curtain coating. In addition he has worked on developing rheological tests for paper coatings, measuring dynamic water retention, controlling the impact of drying on print mottle, and optimizing the performance of multilayer coatings. These contributions have been documented in over 80 publications and presentations including four best papers at the TAPPI Coating Conference. He holds eleven issued US patents and is an inventor on nine other published patent applications.
Dr. Roper has been very active in TAPPI having presented many papers at TAPPI conferences as well as participated as a lecturer at multiple TAPPI short courses. In addition he served in all of the Coating and Graphic Arts Division leadership positions. In 2004 Roper was named a TAPPI Fellow. In 2012 Roper was the Coating and Graphics Art Division Technical Award and Charles Englehard Medallion recipient in recognition of his many technical contributions to the coated paper industry.