Professor Croll was with Millennium Inorganic Chemicals prior to NDSU, where he was the Director of Pigment Research and External Alliances. He gained a degree in physics from the University of London (UK), then completed a doctorate in polymer physics at the University of Leeds (UK). He first worked in England, then moved to the Division of Building Research in the National Research Council Canada. After periods in the construction chemicals and telecommunications industries, he moved to Sherwin-Williams where he worked on film formation in aqueous and non-aqueous coatings, application rheology, the weathering of coatings, adhesion, dispersion stability and polymer characterization and became the Director of Research in the Coatings Division.
After spending over 20 years in industry, Dr. Croll joined the faculty at NDSU in 2000 and became Chair of the department in 2006. His research interests are mainly concerned with the protective and appearance properties of coating films, their durability when subject to weathering, colloidal stability, the use of renewable resources, modern art conservation and physical (including nano-) characterization of coating systems.
Dr. Croll is a member of the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society and the Institute of Physics (U.K.). He is a member of the editorial review board of "Progress in Organic Coatings" and the Journal of Coatings Technology. Dr. Croll has published articles in the coatings, polymers, mechanics and corrosion literature and has presented papers at the American Physical Society, American Chemical Society and at meetings and symposia of Societies for Coatings Technology, the Gordon Conference on Colloids and has been an invited speaker at several university symposia and short courses.
("If I'd had more time, I'd have written a shorter letter.") Blaise Pascal.