6^th Excellence in Polymer Graduate Research Symposium

 

San Francisco - March 22, 2010

 

As part of the Polymer Division's initiative on graduate student membership and graduate education, the Division started a special symposium, entitled "Excellence in Polymer Graduate Research" at the National ACS Meeting in Philadelphia in Fall 2004. Since then, we have organized this symposium every year in the Spring ACS meetings. The sixth symposium was held at the National ACS Meeting in San Francisco on March 22, 2010. As before, it consisted of two half-day oral sessions, a poster session, and a networking social.
 
The purposes of this symposium were 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 was required to fill out an application form and have a nominating letter from the research advisor and a letter from the department head.

 

We had a record number of 36 students this year.  We were very impressed with the quality of the papers and the caliber of the students. In the oral sessions 18 students gave talks on their papers, and in the poster session 18 students presented their work. The program is attached below.  Both the oral and poster sessions went very well. We appreciated the excellent presentations and the energy and enthusiasm that the students displayed. 

 

As part of the recognition, each student received a certificate plus a cash award. It is important to note that Dr. Joe Francisco, the ACS President, had made this a Presidential Event.  Furthermore, Dr. Francisco personally attended the session at the end and spoke to the students. He then mingled and chatted with the students for quite some time.  Group photos were also taken with the students.  Realizing that he had a hectic schedule at the meeting, we truly appreciated Dr. Francisco’s support of the symposium and his efforts to speak to the students.  

 

Afterwards, we had a networking social/dinner at Café Bellini.  The students in both this symposium and the Undergraduate Symposium (organized by Sarah Morgan and Sergei Nazarenko) were invited.  It was wonderful that members of POLY Executive Committees and POLY Industrial Advisory Board were also present.  They interacted with the students over beer, pop, and pizza.  We had a good time.  Particularly noteworthy were the conversations among the students.  We noticed that many graduate students talked to one another, exchanging information.  Moreover, many graduate and undergraduate students sat together and talked about graduate schools.

 

This symposium was organized by ACS Polymer Division (POLY), and cosponsored by Presidential Event (PRES), Young Chemists Committee (YCC), Division of Professional Relations (PROF), Society Committee on Education (SOCED), and POLY. The symposium had the generous support of National Science Foundation Division of Materials Research (DMR), ACS Polymer Division (POLY), Industrial Advisory Board of the Polymer Division (IAB), and Lord Corporation. The organizers thank all the sponsors and supporters, without whom this symposium would not have been possible.
 
Symposium Organizing Committee:

 

H. N. Cheng (USDA)
Christopher J. Ellison (Univ. of Texas at Austin)
Erica H. Martin (Dow Chemical Company)
Timothy E. Long (Virginia Tech)

 

Symposium Program

 

Excellence in Polymer Graduate Research, March 22, 2010

 

Organizers:  H. N. Cheng, Christopher Ellison, Erica Martin, Tim Long

Sponsored by POLY, cosponsored by PROF, YCC, SOCED, and Presidential Event (PRES)

Financial Support:  NSF - DMR, POLY, POLY Industrial Advisory Board, and Lord Corporation.

 

Oral Session 1.  Monday Morning (Hilton – Golden Gate 2)

Session Chair:  H. N. Cheng

8:10 am		Introductory Remarks
8:15 am	165	Spatiotemporal patterning of click-based hydrogels for user-directed 3D cell function Cole A DeForest, Evan A Sims, Kristi S Anseth (U. Colorado)
8:35 am	166	Surface modification of acrylate particles with carbazole moieites via Click chemistry Parul Rungta, Yuriy P Bandera, Volodymyr Tsyalkovsky, Stephen H Foulger (Clemson – Materials)
8:55 am	167	Photopatterned click functional polymer surfaces Jeffrey R. Lancaster, Carl Giller, Ellane J. Park, Tina Wagenaar, John F. Rabolt, Nicholas J. Turro, Jeffrey T. Koberstein (Columbia U.)
9:15 am	168	One-pot synthesis of brush-like polymers via integrated ring-opening metathesis polymerization and polymerization of amino acid N-carboxyanhydrides Hua Lu, Jing Wang, Yao Lin, Jianjun Cheng (U. Illinois – Materials)
9:35 am	169	Uniquely broad glass transitions of gradient copolymers: Experimental results and calculation Michelle M. Mok, Kevin A. Masser, James P. Runt, John M. Torkelson (Northwestern – Materials)
10:25 am	170	Well-defined polymer brushes via surface-initiated ATRP: From synthesis to applications Hongchen Dong, Krzysztof Matyjaszewski (Carnegie-Mellon)
10:45 am	171	Free radical polymerization-based self-healing systems Mary M. Caruso, Gerald O. Wilson, Patrick J. McIntire, Alexander W. Silvia, Benjamin J. Blaiszik, Nancy R. Sottos, Scott R. White,  Jeffrey S. Moore (U. Illinois – Chem)
11:05 am	172	Proton conducting properties of poly(4-vinyl-1H-1,2,3-triazole) Shilpi Sanghi, Birgit Fassbender, Mark Tuominen, Gunther Brunklaus, Hans Wolfgang Spiess, E. Bryan Coughlin (U Mass – Polymer)
11:25 am	173	Colloidal polymerization: A new concept in polymer science Bo Yun Kim, Jeffrey Pyun (U. Arizona)

 

Oral Session 2.  Monday Afternoon (Hilton – Golden Gate 2)

Session Chair:  Christopher Ellison

1:05 pm		Introductory Remarks
1:10 pm		Recognition of Poster Presenters
1:20 pm	232	Hydrogel supported high-throughput microarrays using thiol-ene chemistry Nalini Gupta, Brian F Lin, Luis M Campos, Sherry Hikita, Matthew V Tirrell, Dennis O Clegg, Craig J Hawker (UC Santa Barbara)
1:40 pm	233	High-throughput screening of PEG-heparin hydrogels using multiple particle tracking microrheology Kelly M. Schultz, Aaron D. Baldwin, Laura Campo Deano, Christian Clasen, Kristi L. Kiick, Eric M. Furst (U.Delaware, CE)
2:00 pm	234	Conformational and assembly behavior of collagen-mimetic peptides and their thermally responsive polymer conjugates Ohm D Krishna, Kerstin T Wiss, Peter J Roth, Patrick Theato, Kristi L Kiick (U. Delaware – Materials)
2:20 pm	235	Expanding surface treatment options for controlling block copolymer orientation Jeffrey R. Strahan, Christopher M. Bates, Brennen K. Mueller, Jonathan A. Lee, Joshua M. Katzenstein, Christopher J. Ellison, C. Grant Willson (U. Texas -Chem)
3:10 pm	236	Multi-stimuli-responsive colloidal particles and coalesced films Fang Liu, Dhanya Ramchandra, Marek W Urban (U. Southern Miss)
3:30 pm	237	Investigation of morphology and phase stability in perfluorocyclobutane/PVDF blend membranes Angela M Osborn, Robert B Moore (Virginia Tech -Materials)
3:50 pm	238	Ultrathin glassy polymer films for gas separation membranes and their physical aging behavior Brandon W Rowe, Steven J Pas, Anita J Hill, Ryoichi Suzuki, Benny D Freeman, Donald R Paul (U. Texas – CE)
4:10 pm	239	Soft fullerene materials: Click chemistry and supramolecular assemblies Wenbin Zhang, Xuehui Dong, Shuguang Yang, Ryan Van Horn, David E. Dabney, Chrys Wesdemiotis, Roderic P. Quirk, Stephen Z. D. Cheng (Akron)
4:30 pm	240	Influence of temperature on low-power upconversion in low glass transition polymer blends Joseph R. Lott, Tanya Singh-Rachford, Felix N. Castellano, Christoph Weder (Case Western Reserve)
4:50 pm		Remarks by Dr. Joseph S.  Francisco, ACS President

 

5:30 pm                             Reception and Dinner

 

Poster Session – Monday 9:30 – 11:00 am  (Hilton – POLY Poster Area)

 

	199	Catalyzed functionalization of chitosan in ionic liquids Cristina Stefanescu, William H Daly, Ioan Negulescu (Louisiana State U.)
	200	Nano-patterned polymer brushes for precision bioadhesion Saugata Gon, Maria M Santore (U. Mass –CE)
	201	Fine-tuning biomaterial degradation by embedding hydrolytic enzymes Manoj Ganesh, Richard Gross (Polytech – NYU)
	202	Antimicrobial polymethacrylates: Activity enhancement by elongating the cationic side chain spacer length Edmund F Palermo, Kenichi Kuroda (U. Michigan)
	203	Thiol-ene generated amphiphilic PEGylated coatings for use in anti-biofouling applications Jeremy W Bartels, Phillip M Imbesi, Christopher Fidge, Jun Ma, Andreas M Nyström, Jonathan E Seppala, Michael E Mackay, Karen L Wooley (Wash U. – St Louis)
	204	Superparamagnetic maghemite nanocomposites prepared with novel functionalized block copolymers Sanchita Biswas, Kevin D. Belfield, Ritesh K. Das, Siddhartha Ghosh, Arthur F. Hebard (U. Central Florida)
	205	Synthesis and application of an orthogonal resist to multiple protein patterning Priscilla G Taylor, Margarita Chatzichristidi, Jin-Kyun Lee, Kari M Midthun, Alexander A Zakhidov, Barbara A Baird, George G Malliaras, Christopher K Ober (Cornell U.)
	206	Hierarchically ordered montmorillonite block copolymer brushes Ross E Behling, Eric W Cochran (Iowa State –CE)
	207	Synthesis of a new class of solution soluble poly(benzobisazoles) Jared F. Mike, Malika Jeffries-El  (Iowas State – Chem)
	208	Synthesis of ordered mesoporous silica/polymer composites and their carbon derivatives Liang Cao, Michal Kruk (CUNY Staten Island)
	209	Synthesis of 6-deoxy-6-cyano-cellulose with completely regioselective modification S. Carter Fox, Kevin J. Edgar (Virginia Tech – Wood)
	210	Dynamics of polystyrene-poly(2-vinylpyridine) star block copolymers Juan Pablo Hinestrosa, Douglas Hirt, Michael Kilbey (Chemson – CE)
	211	2D-NMR studies of the backbone and chain end structure in Krytox® fluoropolymers Xiaohong Li, Elizabeth F McCord, Peter Fox, Jon L Howell, Peter L Rinaldi (Akron –Chem)
	212	Effects of copolymer sequence distribution on compatibilization and micelle behavior in polymer blends Robert W. Sandoval, John M. Torkelson (Northwestern – CE)
	213	Correlating ion and water transport and anisotropy in ionomer membranes via nmr spectroscopy and diffusion measurements Jianbo Hou, Mr. Jing Li, Louis A Madsen (Virginia Tech – Chem)
	214	Ionic liquid-polymer solid-state films: The effect of ionic liquid composition on morphology and ion conduction Liang Gwee, Jae-Hong Choi, Karen I Winey, Yossef A Elabd (Drexel)
	215	Investigating the photophysics and intermolecular interactions of solid state fluorescent conjugated polymer chemosensors Sherryllene S. Pinnock, Catherine N. Malele, Wayne E. Jones (Binghamton U)
	216	Electro-photonic enhancement of photonic crystal organic solar cells Doo-Hyun Ko, John R. Tumbleston, Lei Zhang, Stuart Williams, Joseph DeSimone, Rene Lopez, Edward T. Samulski (U. North Carolina)