CHAMPAIGN –Autonomic Materials, a Champaign company that's developing "self-healing" coatings for ships, oil rigs and other structures, has hired a new chief executive officer.

Lamar "Larry" Evans, 52, was formerly president of DSM NeoResins+ in Wilmington, Mass., north of Boston. A native of the Cincinnati area and a chemist by training, he has worked in the coatings industry for 27 years, many of those years in management positions.

"He's the perfect match," said Autonomic Materials founder Scott White, a University of Illinois professor of aerospace engineering. "He has deep expertise in the fields we've targeted, and he brings great ambition and effort to the team. The combination of these things is exactly what we wanted."

For his part, Evans said he agreed to join the recent startup because "I wanted to try a challenge ... to grow a business from that level. ... It's a really intriguing job."

Evans said his first tasks include setting the business plan in place, determining target markets and potential customers and refining the company's portfolio of technologies.

He said he expects to operate from Boston for a while and spend 30 percent to 40 percent of his time in Champaign.

Where he eventually locates may depend on where Autonomic Materials' customers in the coatings industry are, he said. The industry has large concentrations in Chicago and Cleveland, among other places, he said.

Evans received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Cincinnati and a master's degree in chemistry from the University of Kentucky. He then went to work for ICI, a British-based paints and coatings company, in Chicago as a product manager, and subsequently worked for that firm and related entities as an international marketing manager, business manager and president of a joint-venture company.

At Autonomic Materials, he'll work with senior development scientist Magnus Andersson and development scientist Gerald Wilson as the company gears up. It's based in the EnterpriseWorks business incubator in the UI Research Park, with IllinoisVentures the company's lead investor.

Autonomic Materials uses the techniques of "microencapsulation" and "microvascular materials systems" to distribute "self-healing" substances throughout the coatings.

That enables them to be longer-lasting, meaning ships, oil rigs and other metal structures exposed to harsh marine environments would not have to be coated as often.