Grand Opening of Fontana Laboratories

April 1, 2022

The Fontana Corrosion Center moved from its long-time home in MacQuigg Laboratories into the newly renovated Fontana Laboratories building in fall of 2020, but the Grand Opening ceremonies were delayed until April, 2022 because of the COVID pandemic.

Details of the event can be found at the OSU College of Engineering website: https://engineering.osu.edu/news/2022/04/fontana-laboratories-milestone-discovery-and-innovation

It was a glorious day for corrosion at OSU because OSU President Kristina Johnson and College of Engineering Dean Ayanna Howard both described the career of Mars G. Fontana and the importance of corrosion in society.  Fontana’s daughter, Martha Fontana Worth, also spoke and reminisced about her father.

The FCC played a vital role in the event as we presented a corrosion demo. An extensive and concerted effort by many in the FCC was required to develop the procedures required to print an image of the Fontana Laboratories building on a steel panel with salt solution and then expose it to the atmosphere above a solution of NaCl + acetic acid to promote corrosion within tens of minutes. FCC grad student Gabby Montiel spoke at the ceremony to explain the demo and instruct the chairman of the Materials Science and Engineering department, Mike Mills, regarding what to do.

Following the event, attendees visited different research laboratories and the FCC hosted 20 members of the Fontana family including three of his children as well as many of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Members of the families of alumni Chuck Morin and Bob Schafrik also visited.