We chat with James Lindsay, Ph. D., a retired research engineer from General Motors who has volunteered for numerous surface finishing industry groups over the past several decades.

Dr. Lindsay received the National Association for Surface Finishing Presidential Award at the organization’s 2018 Sur/Fin conference for his years of contribution to the finishing industry and to the various organizations that support the industry.

Dr. Lindsay was honored for his many years of service to the NASF and AESF as technical editor of their scientific papers and research. He was previously editor of the NASF’s in-house publications and worked for General Motors until retiring from the company.

In his career with the company, Dr. Lindsay was involved with process engineering (production electroplating, die-casting, and heat-treating) at the world's largest decorative plating facility, the Ternstedt Division of GM in Flint, MI.  Then, in 1969, he accepted a research position as a technical staff member at Bell Laboratories, where he worked on developing coating processes in sputtering and vacuum deposition for novel electrical contact surfaces.