As part of Polymer Division's initiative on graduate student membership and graduate education, the Division started a special symposium, entitled "Excellence In Graduate Polymer Research" at the National ACS Meeting in Philadelphia in Fall 2004. The eighth symposium will be held at the National ACS Meeting in San Diego, California, on March 25-29, 2012. It will consist of two half-day oral sessions, a poster session, and a networking social.
The purposes of this symposium are 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. In our discussions with graduate students, they have indicated high levels of interest in scientific presentation, career development, and networking, both among members of POLY and with their peers. They wish to become more involved and integrated into the Division and the community of Polymer Chemistry as a whole. Our hope is that this symposium represents a step in this direction.
We request that each department (e.g., chemistry, chemical engineering, or polymer/material science) nominate one outstanding graduate student to speak on his or her original research in this special symposium. Previous Excellence Symposia participants will not be eligible to participate in the 2012 Excellence Symposium. We would hope that the student's advisor would be able to fund the student's travel to the meeting. If possible, we will try to raise funds to provide limited financial assistance.
The nominated student should enter the abstract and the preprint of his or her presentation to the PACS (at http://abstracts.acs.org ), under "Excellence in Graduate Polymer Research Symposium" (POLY Division) by the deadline of October 17, 2011.
In addition, the nominating department should prepare the following materials in order to aid in the selection process:
- a nominating letter from the student's research advisor
- a seconding letter from the Department Chair or equivalent
- attached application form, to be filled out by the student
These three documents should be sent, by October 17, 2011 (electronically preferred but paper is acceptable) to:
Dr. H. N. Cheng
Southern Regional Research Center
USDA Agricultural Research Service
1100 Robert E. Lee Blvd.
New Orleans, LA 70124
hncheng100@gmail.com
Thank you in advance for your participation.
Symposium Organizing Committee:
H. N. Cheng (USDA), (POLY Councilor)
Christopher J. Ellison (Univ. of Texas), (POLY Member)
Timothy E. Long (Virginia Tech), (POLY Past Chair)
Christine Landry-Coltrain (Eastman Kodak), (POLY Alternate Councilor)
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Division of Polymer Chemistry 
