13th Excellence in Polymer Graduate Research Symposium

San Francisco, CA  April  3-4, 2017

see previous years

The thirteenth symposium on "Excellence in Polymer Graduate Research" took place at the national ACS meeting in San Francisco, California on April 3-4, 2017.  The purpose of this symposium was to provide recognition to outstanding graduate students in polymer science and engineering, to foster networking and exposure, and to help develop the careers of future leaders in our field.  We publicized this symposium via the POLY list server, POLY web page, and direct email messages to over 100 departments that are active in polymer research.  We requested that each department nominate one outstanding graduate student to speak on his or her original research in this special symposium.  Each student filled out an application form and had a nominating letter from the research advisor and a letter from the department head.
 
This year we had 52 students in the symposium, with 34 oral presentations and 18 posters.  This was the largest number since the symposium started in 1994.  The oral sessions went very well.  Despite the short time allotted to each speaker (20 minutes), the students were well prepared and stayed within the time limit.  The presentations were well done.  The poster session was also successful with a lot of traffic and good discussions in front of the posters.  For both oral and poster sessions, the scientific quality of the papers was generally high. 

Dr. Allison Campbell, 2017 ACS President, visited the symposium at the end of the afternoon oral session on Monday to give an encouraging talk to the students.  She was introduced by Prof. Marc Hillmyer, the 2017 POLY Chair. A group photo was taken with the students, Dr. Campbell and Prof. Hillmyer.  As part of the recognition, each student received a certificate plus a cash award.  In addition, Wiley (Journal of Polymer Science) presented book awards (worth $250 each) to four students (Alice Chang, Apoorv Shanker, James Ioccozzia, and Dibyendu Debnath) in recognition of outstanding papers.

This symposium was sponsored by the ACS Polymer Chemistry Division (POLY), and cosponsored by Presidential Event (PRES), Young Chemists Committee (YCC), Division of Professional Relations (PROF), and Society Committee on Education (SOCED).  The symposium had the generous support of POLY, Industrial Advisory Board of the Polymer Division (IAB), Tosoh, Wiley, and Dr. George Foster’s Bequest.  The detailed symposium program is attached and listed below.

  
Symposium Organizing Committee:
H. N. Cheng, USDA
Christopher Ellison, University of Minnesota
Christine Landry-Coltrain, Eastman Kodak Company
Timothy E. Long, Virginia Tech

 Symposium Program

Sponsored by POLY, cosponsored by PRES, PROF, SOCED, YCC  
Supported by POLY, POLY Industrial Advisory Board, Tosoh, Wiley, and Dr. George Foster's Bequest

 
ORAL Session - Monday morning. Session Chair: H. N. Cheng

 ORAL Session - Monday afternoon. Session Chair:  Christopher Ellison

  ORAL Session - Tuesday morning. Session Chair:  H.N. Cheng

 ORAL Session - Tuesday afternoon. Session Chair:  Christopher Ellison

 ORAL Session - Tuesday evening