2012 John Arthur Wilson Memorial Lecturer -- Anthony D. Covington, DSc

The 53rd John Arthur Wilson Memorial Lecture will be presented at the Annual Meeting by Professor  Anthony Covington at 8:45 am on Friday, June 8, in the Carlisle Ballroom. 

The title of his presentation will be "Leather Science: Requisite or Requiem?"

Anthony Dale Covington obtained the Graduateship of the Royal Institute of Chemistry (now the Royal Society of Chemistry) at Teesside Polytechnic (now the University of Teesside) then PhD in physical organic chemistry at Stirling University under the supervision of R.P Bell FRS, followed by post-doctoral research in physical chemistry at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, the city of his birth.

In 1976 he joined the British Leather Manufacturers' Association (later to become BLC the Leather Technology Centre of Northampton, UK), where he spent 18 years engaged in research and development, industrial consultancy and problem solving, working in different types of tanneries around the world.  In 1995 he was appointed by Nene College, later to be The University of Northampton, to teach leather science in the British School of Leather Technology, becoming Professor of Leather Science in 1996. 

His career in the leather industry spans 35 years, producing inter alia 55 lectures in 12 countries around the world, 24 doctoral graduates and over 260 technical publications.  The publications include a book: Tanning Chemistry. The Science of Leather, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, in recognition of which the American Leather Chemists Association gave Professor Covington the Alsop Award in 2011.

He is a Fellow of the Society of Leather Technologists and Chemists and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Professor Covington first gave the John Arthur Wilson Memorial Lecture to the Annual Conference of ALCA in 1998.

In 2009, the International Union of Leather Technologists and Chemists gave him the IULTCS Merit Award for Excellence in the Leather Industry.

He is currently semi-retired as Emeritus Professor.