PITTSBURGH — PPG Industries has announced that Charles Kahle II, vice president, coatings research and development, is taking on additional responsibility as chief technology officer for PPG.

Kahle will report to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Charles Bunch and will join PPG’s Operating Committee in his new combined role. He will continue to be based at PPG’s coatings research center in Allison Park, Pa., and will work closely with PPG’s business leadership and the board’s technology and environment committee. While retaining direct responsibility for coatings research and development, Kahle also will assume functional responsibility for glass and chemicals research as well as global product development.

After earning his doctorate in organic chemistry at the University of Illinois, Kahle joined PPG in 1987 as a research associate in coatings. He worked in the electrodeposition and central research groups and served as group leader for automotive parts and accessories coatings development. Kahle subsequently held key technical leadership roles in PPG’s chemicals and glass technology centers before becoming director, research, coatings and resins, in 2004, and vice president, coatings research and development, in 2007.