The joint ACS/OSA meeting on Thin Films for Photonic Applications, collocated at the fall OSA (Optical Society of America) meeting, had a good turn out. OSA did not publish a proceedings from that meeting. One page abstracts of the entire OSA meeting were distributed on a CD and can probably be purchased from OSA.
Carl S. Marvel Creative Polymer Chemistry Award Announced
The Carl S. Marvel Creative Polymer Chemistry Award recognizes and encourages accomplishments and/or innovation of unusual merit in the field of basic or applied polymer science by younger scientists. The winner is Tim Swager (MIT). The award will be presented at the Spring 2005 national meeting. Previous recipients of this award include Louis J. Fetters, Wayne L. Mattice, Edward L. Thomas, Garth L. Wilkes, Robert S. Langer, David A. Tirrell, Sukant Tripathy, Krizysztof Matyjaszewski, Bruce Novak, Joseph M. DeSimone, Craig J. Hawker and James L. Hedrick.
Actively Seeking Nominations for the Mark Polymer Chemistry Award and the Flory Education Award
Mark Polymer Chemistry Award
The Herman F. Mark Polymer Chemistry Award recognizes outstanding research and leadership in polymer science. The next award will be presented at the Fall 2005 ACS Meeting. The deadline for nominations is November 1, 2004. Please refer to the Division website or a recent newsletter for the nomination requirements. Previous recipients of this award include Paul J. Flory, Carl S. Marvel, Maurice L. Huggins, Herman F. Mark, John D. Ferry, Charles G. Overberger, Walter H. Stockmayer, Michael Swarc, E. J. Vandenberg, Harry R. Allcock, James E. McGrath, James Economy, Murray Goodman, Robert Grubbs, Henry K. Hall, Jr., Robert W. Lenz, Leo Mandelkern, Otto Vogl and William J. MacKnight.
Flory Education Award
The Paul J. Flory Polymer Education Award recognizes outstanding achievements by an individual in promoting undergraduate and/or graduate polymer education. The next award will be presented at the Spring 2006 national meeting. The deadline for nominations is July 1, 2005. Please refer to the Division website or a recent newsletter for the nomination requirements. Previous recipients of this award include Herman F. Mark, Carl S. Marvel, Paul J. Flory, Maurice Morton, Charles G. Overberger, George B. Butler, Eli M. Pearce, Leo Mandelkern , Eric Baer, Roger Porter, James E. Mark, U. W. Suter and the team of James E. McGrath, Thomas C. Ward and Garth L. Wilkes.
Industrial Polymer Scientist Award
The Industrial Polymer Science Award recognizes outstanding industrial innovation and creativity in the application of Polymer Science, conducted by individual scientists or research teams. Previous awardees have included W. H. Mandeville, S. R. Holmes-Farley, A. D. English, L. M. Robeson, Bill M. Culbertson and Craig J. Hawker. The Industrial Sponsors Group sponsors the award.
As a POLY representative to BTEC, the following session topics for POLY and PMSE divisions correlate with BTEC planned programming. Below is a spreadsheet in which sessions already planned by POLY and PMSE may (or may not) wish to interact with BTEC's planned sessions. The session chairs are presented for reference. [note: the spreadsheet was not reproduced here.]
This message was sent to the BTEC Secretary General (J. Finley), POLY representative (B. Ratner), PMSE representative for BTEC (G. Swift), current POLY Chair (K. Carter).
Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting (MARM 2005) meeting held May 22-25, 2005
Organizer: Kathryn Uhrich, Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University
Amphiphilic Biomaterials
-Todd Emrick (Polymer Science & Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
-Dennis Discher (Chemical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania)
-Dan Hammer (Chemical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania)
Stars and Branched Polymers
-Tim Long (Chemistry, Virginia Tech)
-Kristi Kiick )Materials Science & Engineering, University of Delaware)
-Mark Grinstaff (Biomedical Engineering, Boston University)
Nanoparticles and Nanoshells
-Michael Pishko (Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, and Materials Science & Engineering, Penn
State)
-Justin Hanes (Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins)
-Emmanuel O. Akala (School of Pharmacy, Howard University)
Targeted Drug Delivery
-Tamara Minko (Pharmaceutics, Rutgers University)
-Joyce Wong (Biomedical Engineering, Boston University)
Surface Modification
-Tom Beebe (Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of Delaware)
-Ashitosh Chilkoti (Biomedical Engineering, Duke University)
-James Bryers (Biostructure & Function, University of Connecticut)
Engineered Biomaterials
-John Rabolt (Materials Science & Engineering, University of Delaware)
-Sam Huang (Chemistry, University of Connecticut)
Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting (MARM 2005)
Rutgers University (Busch campus) held May 23-24, 2005
Organizers: Frieder Jaekle (Rutgers University, Newark campus)
This symposium will focus on advances in the area of metal- and metalloid-containing polymers and
their applications in catalysis, materials science and nanotechnology. Topics include:
-New synthetic methods
-Supramolecular polymers
-Supported catalysts
-Electronic materials
-Photonic materials
-Preceramic polymers
-Coordination polymers
-Hybrid organic-inorganic systems
Confirmed Speakers:
Bhanu Chauhan, CUNY Staten Island
Bryan Coughlin, UMass Amherst
Robert B. Grubbs, Dartmouth College
Qiao-Sheng Hu, CUNY Staten Island
Frieder Jäkle, Rutgers University-Newark
Ian Manners, University of Toronto
John Sheridan, Rutgers University-Newark
Larry Sneddon, University of Pennsylvania
Gregory Tew, UMass Amherst
Tissue Engineering - Cell-Material Interactions
Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting (MARM 2005)
Rutgers University (Busch campus) held May 23-24, 2005
Organizers: Treena Livingston and Mike Jaffe (NJIT)
This!mini-symposium will focus on the chemistry and architecture of the scaffold for improving
cellular function and tissue formation. Topics will include, but are not limited to - Biomaterials and
soluble/insoluble cues for cell phenotype expression, stem and progenitor cell engineering, nanoscale
architectures and chemistry for improved cell function!!
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Business Office - N. Byerly
The Business Office is assisting with the following workshops and meetings:
2004
Molecular Modeling of Polymers
Branched Polymers for Performance
Polycondensation 2004
2004 POLY Biennial - Polymer Design for Biology: Activity and Structure
Fluoropolymers 2004
2005
Advances in Materials for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Systems
Photonics 2005 - Nanophotonics, Biophotonics and Optelectronic Polymer Systems
Polymers in Medicine and Biology: 2005
5th Advances in Polyolefins 2005
Pacific Polymer Federation IX Meeting
Brochures on the upcoming meetings and workshops were available at the POLY membership Booth in Philadelphia and can be obtained at the POLY web site
The 2004 Spring issue of the Polymer Newsletter was mailed out to the membership in June. The next Newsletter will be distributed with the election ballots in October. Suggestions for changes and additional articles for the Fall issue can be accepted through August 30, 2004.
A total of 44 new members joined the Division at the ACS meeting in Anaheim.
We have shipped a total of 346 copies (including 23 CD-ROMs) of POLYMER PREPRINTS issue 45-2 to library subscribers whose accounts were paid up for the year 2004. Of this number 178 hard copies were shipped by the printers, and all CD-ROMs and hard copies requiring special handling (totaling 168,) were sent from Newark.
POLYMER PREPRINTS issue 45-2 was the last issue made available in hard copy format. From now on, hard copies will be available as back issues only. Pending approval and specific instructions, starting with issue 46-1, (Spring 2005,) all future shipments to library subscribers will be handled from Newark, which should result in significant reduction of costs. As long as they last, we will fill all hard copy back issue orders from our, still ample, supplies.
We are slowly progressing with the preparation of the cumulative archival edition of the complete set of the Preprints, Vols. 1-through 40, (1960-1999.) To the best of our information, we have agreed on ordering a few copies of the set on MICROFILM, which is the most durable format, imperative for both, scientific and legal purposes, and for which we have obtained an affordable price quotation, and we are currently negotiating for the best price for duplicates on CD-ROM, a format much more user friendly than MICROFILM, which we plan to offer for sale to libraries in order to recoup the expense of the project, and, hopefully, also to generate additional income for the Division.
INTERSOCIETY POLYMER EDUCATION COUNCIL (IPEC) - F. Jones
IPEC (www.uwsp.edu/chemistry/ipec/home.htm) promotes and supports teaching about polymers and polymeric materials in the K-12 curricula. IPEC's programs have proven to be an excellent way to interest students at all grade and ability levels in polymers and, more broadly, in science and technology. Students' interest can be sparked because they are familiar with polymeric materials
Most of IPEC's activity involves the Polymer Ambassadors. The Ambassadors (www.polymerambassadors.org) are about 18 talented and dedicated K-12 classroom teachers, located coast-to-coast. The Ambassadors conduct workshops at regional and national teachers' conventions, where they teach other teachers to use polymers in classroom instruction. About 100 such workshops are presented to 4000 - 5000 teachers each year. These workshops are popular with teachers, who obtain practical and effective materials for use in their classes. It is estimated that IPEC has indirectly reached over 1,000,000 students. Examples of materials developed by the Ambassadors can be found on the website. A high level of activity is being maintained in 2004. For example, at the 2004 National Science Teachers Association meeting eight Ambassadors presented eleven workshops attended by over 600 teachers.
Polymer Ambassadors have received numerous major awards including National Teacher of the Year Awards. This year Wayne Goates became the fifth Ambassador to win a Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching.
Akron Initiative. In 2002, IPEC and the Polymer Ambassadors formed a partnership with the Akron Global Polymer Academy (AGPA), whose mission is to use synchronous and asynchronous distance learning to support K-12 science instruction. An important element of the project is to integrate the materials with National Science Education Standards and State Standards, since these standards strongly influence selection of curricula topics. In the July-August, 2004, three Ambassadors participated in a two-week workshop at Akron, working with 23 other teachers. Objectives were to teach the teachers about polymers and to develop lessons for broad dissemination on the AGPA website. About 50 new lessons were developed. Topics included "Toys" and "Designer Sneakers." The lessons include film clips. An additional workshop involving the Ambassadors is planned for fall.
Chemical Laboratories with Video Enhancement (CLVE). This year, four Ambassadors began creating web based laboratories and movies for first year high school students. The movies are intended to generate interest, show procedure, and address safety issues but not to provide the results. As of August 2004, there are two prototype lessons and Quick time movies on the PA website. This project was partly funded by a grant from the SPE Foundation. A grant is being sought to make more laboratories and movies in 2005.
Disney Epcot Initiative. Joyce Brumberger, the Chair of the Polymer Ambassadors, helped train cast members for the "Fantastic Plastics Works" exhibit to open at Disney's Epcot Center about September 30. This major exhibit was organized by the Society of the Plastics Industry with major sponsorship by GE and Du Pont. Approximately 25 cast members were trained directly in three separate 3-hour sessions. The sessions were videotaped for future cast member training. Joyce and Marge Weiner (National Plastics Museum) discussed basic polymer chemistry, manufacturing processes, and polymer history, and they conducted several hands-on-activities and demonstrations. Ambassadors Mary Harris and Wayne Goates and IPEC Board Member Charles Carraher prepared a notebook of training materials for the Disney training library.
"Polymer Science of Everyday Things" (PSOET) Workshop and Symposium, Philadelphia, August 21-22. The goal of (PSOET) workshops and symposia is to explain how the things that people encounter and use every day depend on polymer science. Do scientists, teachers and students realize that polymers are essential for transportation, computers, DVDs, the internet, musical instruments, and sports equipment? PSOET events gather and disseminate reliable information on such topics, especially to teachers. The Philadelphia PSOET is modeled after a highly successful PSOET held in 2003, with all-new material. The Saturday workshop is intended for middle school and high school science teachers, who will attend at Philadelphia and at remote, interactive sites at the Universities of Akron and Arizona. Topics for 2004 are "Musical Instruments (Saxaphones, Drums) and Chemistry" and "Batteries for Cell Phones and Laptops." The workshop will be conducted by two Polymer Ambassadors, an academic expert, an industrial expert, and a saxophonist. The Sunday symposium (POLY) features eleven papers on the science and technology of musical instruments, communications equipment, and batteries.
IPEC also sponsors other workshops for high school teachers, including "Discovery in Plastics Processing" at Eastern Michigan University and "PAWS for Polymers," at Clemson University. These programs are always filled to capacity; and are well received by the teachers. Polymer Ambassadors often attend both to gain knowledge and to participate in the presentations. The EMU program was suspended in 2003-04 but is expected to resume in 2005.
IPEC is a 501(c) not-for-profit corporation. IPEC supporting organizations are the American Chemistry Council/American Plastics Council and the American Chemical Society Divisions of Polymer Chemistry, Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering, and Rubber. Its Board of Directors comprises two voting representatives from each member organization. Organizations are encouraged to appoint additional Board representatives. IPEC runs on volunteer energy. Board members are not paid.
Retaining member organizations is essential, and recruiting new member organizations is vitally important. Member funding is the flywheel that drives IPEC's ongoing core activities. Support of Polymer Ambassadors accounted for 88% of IPEC's 2003 budget. The 2004 budget is similar. With more dues-paying members, the corps of Ambassadors could be enlarged and activity could be expanded. There are plenty of good opportunities. In addition, more member organizations would add more members to the IPEC board, increasing its capacity for new initiatives and fund-raising.
IPEC continues seeking supplementary funding from grants. For example, the Society of Plastics Engineers Foundation provided $7400 for CLVE (See above.). Additional supplementary funding is being sought. Aid from such sources is greatly appreciated and is important in augmenting IPEC's efforts.
IPEC member organizations can be proud of what IPEC accomplishes and can look forward to more high-impact activities.
The next meeting of the IPEC Board of Directors will be at 10:00 AM Monday, August 23 in Philadelphia in conjunction with the spring national meeting of the American Chemical Society. As always, the meeting is open to any interested people; representatives of member organizations are especially encouraged to attend.
IPEC Mission Statement
To significantly increase student interest and participation in science and technology subjects by incorporating the teaching of polymers and polymeric materials into K-12 curricula by utilizing the combined resources and infrastructures of the participating scientific societies.
I am happy to report that the Membership Committee remains strong and vibrant under the new leadership of Alan Hopkins and Drew Donnelly.
Activities in the 3 R's - recruitment, retention, recognition - are ongoing and continuously monitored by myself, Alan and Drew to ensure that the initiatives remain fresh and active.
Our main focus continues to be the graduate student population, which according to our latest membership numbers, constitutes ~12% of our membership population.
Membership numbers have dropped steadily since 2000. We currently stand at 6772. Could this drop be due to the economy, job market, and chemical industry ?? PMSE has declined also , but to a lesser degree.
Some interesting data:
50.6% of our membership claim an international work address
58.2% of our membership belong to more than one Division
57.5% of our members hold advanced degrees
Using this information, perhaps we can focus on what the needs would be for these populations (international, multi-disciplinary, BS-level industrial populationÉ)
Feedback from the postcard surveys sent to 5, 10, 20, and 30 yr members this past Spring still indicates that Polymer Preprints is the number 1 valued benefit. Our symposia at National Meetings comes in 2nd followed by the newsletter.
Finally, some major events occurring at this meeting:
POLY/PMSE hospitality suite - Tues night immediately following the poster session in the Marriott - tentatively room 413 Board member recruitment at the POLY table - - please sign up with Janelle to volunteer time and network with new members/potential members at the table Graduate Student Travel Awards - call for applications for Spring 2005 meeting - see POLY table or website - deadline Nov 1, 2004 Excellence in Graduate Polymer Research Symposium - -Tues PM, Wed AM, Marriott Salon K. NETWORKING SOCIAL aimed to network with the graduate student population - immediately following Tues PM session in Salon K. PLEASE ATTEND!
The Membership Committee currently consists of the following members:
Andrew B. Donnalley (Exxon Mobil) and Alan R. Hopkins (The Aerospace Corporation) Co-Chairs
Erica Martin (Rohm and Haas Co) - Member-at-Large
HN Cheng (Hercules) - Counselor
Pal Arjunan (Exxon-Mobil) - Membership Booth Co-Chair
Janelle Ulik (Bausch and Lomb) - Membership Booth Co-Chair
Nozar Sachinvala (USDA)
Maneesh Bahadur (Dow Corning)
Kevin Belfield (Univ Central Fla)
Jun Wang (RIT) - POLY database
Harry Barraza (Univ of Oklahoma) - Student Membership
Yogesh Patel (Rutgers)-Student Membership
Pankaj Gupta (University of Vermont)-Student Membership
Noteworthy events for the Philadelphia meeting:
1. POLY/PMSE hospitality suite - Tuesday night at the Marriott hotel immediately following the poster session.
2. Board member recruitment at the POLY table - - please sign up with Janelle to volunteer time with new potential members at the table
Introduction
As the new Co-Chairs of the Membership Committee, we are well underway in transitioning from Erica's strong leadership as past chair into our new roles. Since the Anaheim spring meeting, our objective will be to continue the emphasis of the 3R's in the Polymer Division's activities, particularly focusing on how POLY can engage more graduate and post-docs into the membership. This will be accomplished by actively recruiting new members at national meetings, retaining them by maximizing their benefits and finally recognizing their service and contributions to the division.
Our current efforts under the three R's are:
1. Recruitment of new members:
a. Use the "POLY/PMSE Hospitality Suite" as a new approach to recruit new ACS members, especially graduate and post-docs. Also this is an opportunity to reach out to current members of the division.
b. With new display rack, we have upgraded the appeal factor of promoting journals which publish POLY membership recruitment ads.
c. Sent letters to members who do not renew their membership
d. We have successfully completed the polymer preprints cover for Spring/Fall division meeting 2004. We look forward to possible contributions to designing future POLY preprint covers.
e. Web membership: Goal is to have in place a link for student membership which addresses future jobs in POLY, posting of new Ôhot' POLY jobs for POLY members only and a Q & A section.
f. Sci-Mix poster session -POLY posters will be present at Sci-Mix. We are promoting networking among graduate/undergraduates.
2. Retention of current members:
a. Letters to 1st, 2nd yr members each Fall encouraging renewal of membership
b. Graduate Student focus: continue with Erica's travel award initiative. For next year (2005), there will be four $500 awards to be awarded for travel to San Diego to present a paper in a POLY symposium
3. Recognition of members:
a. Letters/web page listing/ recognition event/ POLY pins for 5, 10, 20, 30 anniversary members every Spring - positive response.
b. There has been an extremely positive response with the pin recognition program. This program will be continued into the foreseeable future.
POLY LIST
There are about 1300 members on the POLY list. The volume of mail continues to be moderate and the number of complaints is low, almost negligible. Either Ken Carter or I approve postings to the list. Only one day of worms affected the list. We have fixed the holes with additional safeguards.
World Wide Web (www)
The total number of hits on the old and new POLY pages is 251,000. We have had 1.5 years experience with the web pages at www.polyacs.org. It seems to have gone pretty well with this site. In August, we are averaging 670 (up by 100 over March) visitors per day with 1800 page views. This is well up from last year (210 and 800). It might be interesting to note that 51% of the traffic is direct, 13% from Google, 6% from polyacs.org, 3% from Yahoo, and 1.4% from ACS.
The number of members who join the Division via the www and register for workshops continues to increase.
Since Mar 2003
Top 30 (bold denotes new to the list)
Several individual job openings had over 1000 hits.
I solicit your help. Please send me things electronically by e-mail for inclusion on the web pages.
http://www.polyacs.org
I also request help in soliciting advertising for the web page. Now that the pages are on a commercial site, we have no restrictions as far as they are concerned. It seems logical to do this for the web pages, newsletter and Polymer Preprints, with a coordinated effort.
Figure - Visitors by month (note August 04 is an incomplete month).
Some casual information
¥ Most searches are for: Polymer Preprints.
¥ Most access from .edu sites: uakron > umr > vt > psu > msu > usm > poly.
¥ Most non-edu access (ones I recognize, not providers): ge > attbi > dupont > navy > rohnhaas
¥ Top Countries: com > net > Unresolved > edu > de > jp > uk > fr
¥ Browsers: explorer > netscape > googlebot > hatenna antenna > scooter
¥ Platforms: windows > indows > mac > unix
The Philadelphia issue of Polymer Preprints [45(2), 2004] marks the end of our fourth year of publishing both a CD and Print version in addition to posting the Preprints on the web. This issue contains the preprints from 6 Symposia plus General Papers for a total of 458 papers published (861 pages). It continues to be the goal of the editorial staff to elevate the stature of Preprints in the world of scientific publishing. The CD version continues to evolve, incorporating new functionalities as technology advances. We are continuing to add additional information of interest for our members to the CD version.
The Division recognizes the importance of advertising to the future financial support of Preprints. After the resignation of the prior Polymer Division's appointee, Dr. Chad Booth, no one has volunteered or been appointed to the advertising committee. Currently, the Polymer Preprints editorial staff does not have the financial resources or additional staff available to exclusively handle the advertising component of preprints as before. It is our request that the division appoint a member to this role or negotiate additional resources to handle this essential task.
Financial Status
Due to streamlining and moving some of the production steps from Mira to the Preprints editorial staff, we have made a significant savings cost in the delivery of the CD version of preprints. After negotiations with Mira, a new printing company was contracted to handle our print copy order, saving the division roughly $5,000. The division has decided to discontinue the hard copy version due to unavoidable production costs. Assuming that all library subscriptions continue, the division will save around $20,000 per issue due to this change.
When the Editors initially evaluated vendors to produce Preprints it was determined that Mira Digital Publishing was the best and most cost efficient. We will continue to explore and accept bids from other vendors for future meetings. However, Mira Digital is willing to offer a 5% discount for a 6 issue production contract.
Texas State University-San Marcos will bear the in-kind support of the Polymer Preprints editorial functions. The Polymer Division's financial support of publishing preprints has remained consistent up to this issue. We would like to request funding at the level of $19,000/year for 2005. The reduction of $1,000 per year is a result of the elimination of the print copy mailing and proofing costs.
The following tables outline the publication and editorial administrative costs for Preprints
Detailed Publication Cost
New Orleans
New York
Anaheim
Philadelphia
(Actual)
(Actual)
(Actual)
(Estimate)
Texas State Editorial Admin.
$10,000
$10,000
$10,000
$10,000
Copies published
CDs
7,500
7,000
7,100
7,100
Books
750
700
700
675
Preprints
670
523
625
438
Pages
1304
990
1220
861
CD Copy
Cost
Cost
Cost
Cost
Integrate manuscripts
$6,870
$5,440
$6,270
$5,700
Index manuscripts
$1,500
$1,500
$1,250
$1,188
License Acrobat Reader/create & test navigational screens and hyper-linking
WEB SITE UPDATED
In recent years, POLYED has moved more and more to web-based delivery of our resources. The POLYED web site (www.polyed.org), developed at the POLYED Center at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, has been extensively revised in the past year. A number of new features also were developed and implemented this summer.
In moving to web-based delivery of our resources, we have made gains in efficiency and cost-effectiveness. However, along with these gains, there have been significant changes with regards to our ability to know who is using our resources. Along with an updated look and the inclusion of additional resources, a focus of the recent updates to the web site include changes that now make it much easier to gather user-statistics. We are now employing MySQL, a web-based database program, to obtain user information such as the number of user accesses, the domain and country of origin of users of our web page, the average time of each visit, whether the visit to the site is a first use or return, identification of the most popular pages viewed, the number of downloads of our resources, etc. MySQL also offers the possibility of gathering information from users. For example, users may "vote" on a particularly topic, e.g., what resources they found to be the most useful or to request things that they wish were available on the POLYEDweb site.
The web site statistical information will be most helpful in assessing the usefulness of the POLYED web site to the clientele - teachers, students, and polymer science professionals - that we serve. In addition, it will help us identify what information our users are most interested in and what resources are most effective in generating return visits to our web site. The addition of MySQL database capabilities will afford greatly enhanced monitoring and web site assessment capabilities and thus, is expected to be an important addition to our web site.
The new web site now has forum capabilities. At the POLYED meeting on Tuesday, a proposal to offer a six month trial of the "POLYED Forum" will be considered. The forum will provide teachers, and anyone else who is interested, with an interactive resource for obtaining information about polymers. It will serve to augment the information on polymers that already is available on the site. The purpose of the forum will be to provide an opportunity for teachers to ask questions and to receive answers and additional information from professionals in the polymer field. It will be a moderated forum to promote a professional atmosphere, but all who have general questions about polymers will be encouraged to post them on the forum. The key to the success of the forum will be the willingness of polymer professionals - in particular, the POLY and PMSE membership - to periodically visit the forum to provide answers to the questions that are posed. The forum has much potential to be an important resource for the polymer education community. Please visit the forum regularly at www.polyed.org and actively participate in answering questions. Pending approval at the Philadelphia meeting, the forum will go online in September. The success of the forum will be largely dependent on the willingness of polymer professionals to participate.
The POLYED web site is linked to and accessible from the POLY web site http://www.polyacs.org (under "Education") as well as from the PMSE site, http://membership.acs.org/P/PMSE/ (under "Services"). In addition, logos for POLY and PMSE appear on each page of the POLYED web site and both the PMSE and POLY web sites are accessible from the POLYED web site by just clicking on the Divisions' logos.
College and University Resources
Ted Wilks and John Droske are organizing a series of papers on Polymer Nomenclature to be submitted for publication in the Journal of Chemical Education.
Les Sperling (Lehigh University) continues to contact publishers of textbooks urging them to include polymer topics in introductory chemistry and engineering texts. The focus of this effort is to encourage the incorporation of polymer topics throughout the text rather than limited to a discussion late in the text.
In a collaboration between the POLYED Center and the Polymer Science Learning Center at the University of Southern Mississippi and funded by the National Science Foundation, experiments suitable for use in college/university polymer science courses are being made available for web delivery. These experiments were developed at UW-SP and have been updated to include links to Macrogalleria, a polymer education resource developed at USM. The experiments comprise a complete set of laboratory exercises for a one or two semester polymer science laboratory course. The experiments will be downloadable from the PSLC at USM and from the POLYED Center web site at UW-SP, which has links to/from the POLY and PMSE web sites.
K-12 Resources
The current POLYED web site has both text and audio definitions of polymers, examples of natural and synthetic polymers, explanations of entropy effects in rubber, and examples of "Polymers in today's world" which features surgical applications of polymers, composite bike frames, polymers in camping gear (new), polymers in computers (new), and other general interest illustrations on the use of polymers. In addition, classroom activities for teachers at all levels are available for downloading as Adobe PDF files. We have chosen to use the Adobe PDF format for the polymer activities on the POLYED server so that the files are downloaded in their entirety. This ensures that teachers receive the entire article, complete with safety guidelines and any other key information. All activities are reviewed by polymer professionals and grade level teachers to ensure that the materials distributed by POLYED are accurate and suitable for their intended audience.
Those involved in the Polymer Science of Everyday Things Symposium (Sunday, Marriott Salon G) are urged to consider submitting information from the symposium so that it may be included as part of the POLYED "Polymers in Today's World" web resources.
The POLYED Center assisted the Intersociety Polymer Education Council (see IPEC report) by updating and expanding IPEC's web site. The MySQL database capabilities described earlier also will be implemented in the IPEC web site so that user statistics may be obtained on the IPEC site as well.
Mary Harris, Polymer Ambassador Liaison to POLYED, reports that several PA's have been active in developing laboratory instruction movie clips as part of the CLVE program. The PAs continue to offer workshops for K-12 teachers and recently gave presentations in the Akron area and at the Biennial Conference on
Chemical Education. See IPEC report for details.
AWARD PROGRAMS
A symposium for the ICI Graduate Student Award is being held at the Philadelphia meeting. The symposium was organized by John Thomaides, National Starch & Chem. Co., co-chair of the ICI Award subcommittee and will be held on Tuesday afternoon from 1:30 to 5:00 in the Marriott Salon C. The Organic Student Award and the Curriculum Development Award are being offered this year. As decided at the Fall meeting, the Summer Scholarship Program was not offered this year as it is in the process of being reviewed.
MISCELLANEOUS
There are a number of opportunities to become involved in POLYED. Please consider becoming involved yourself or if you know of someone who has an interest in polymer education, please urge them to become involved. We appreciate the Divisions' help in identifying people, as they are the key to the success of POLYED's efforts. As always, the helpfulness of the many people who are involved in POLYED is greatly appreciated.
POLYED MEETING
The POLYED meeting will be held at the Marriott, Room 410, 7:30 AM, Tuesday. It is an open meeting and anyone interested is most welcome.
POLY off-site workshops continue to be strong technical meetings on contemporary topics with national and international invited speakers. They are well attended, and the POLY business office management and staff headed by Neta Byerly continues to provide excellent service to the members. The POLY business office, workshop co-chairs and POLY treasurer work together to budget funds appropriately for these meetings. We are scheduled through 2005. Suggestions and suggested chairs and co-chairs for 2006 workshops are sought.
2004
Molecular Modeling of Polymers
Held March 18-20, 2004
Crowne Plaza, Hilton Head, SC
Chairs: Rahmi Ozisik (Renssalear Polytechnic Inst. - RPI) and Greg Rutledge (MIT)
Attendees 50. The workshop was budgeted for 34 full-paying participants, 33 full-paying participants attended. The program was excellent. The location was excellent and we propose to hold workshops there again (great food and staff on Hilton Head beach). POLY was $130 in the red (essentially breakeven).
Branched Polymers for Performance
Held May 23-26, 2004
Woodlands Hotel and Conference Center, Williamsburg, VA
Co-Chairs: Tim Long (VA Tech), Ralph Colby (Penn St), Doug Kiserow (ARO), Richard Turner (Eastman), and Carl Willis (Kraton Polymers). This was a very successful international program with 126 attendees (67 full-paying). This was a new location for POLY and we plan workshops in this location in the future. This program is considered a large workshop (45 speakers and organizers), so a great deal of outside funding was raised to support the large number of speakers. The instrument companies set up displays, but POLY paid for food, and tables for displays. This workshop will run again in 2006. Financials look very good.
Polycondensation 2004
September 26-29, 2004
Virginia Tech Roanoke Hotel and Conference Ctr., Roanoke, VA
Chairs: Jim McGrath (VA Tech), Frank Harris (U. Akron), Ed Paschke (Amoco, retired). This program has 45 speakers. There are 97 registered to date (as of 8/13/04) with 40 full-paying, but registration activity is very high at this time. We do not anticipate any problems filling our room and food commitments based on current registration, but we need about 25 more full-paying participants.
Biennial 2004 Polymer Design for Biology: Activity and Structure
October 3-6, 2004
Savannah Riverfront Marriott, Savannah, GA
Chairs: Bill Brittain (U. Akron), Greg Tew (U. Mass), Erwin Vogler (PA State)
The organizers have put together an excellent program with 27 speakers. Bill Brittain is working on a web-cast for this meeting. Anticipated 100 attendees with 60 full-paying. 44 are registered to date (8/04) with 11 full-paying. Looks good!
FLUOROPOLYMER 2004 Current Frontiers and Future Trends
October 6-9, 2004
Savannah Riverfront Marriott, Savannah, GA
Chair: Dennis Smith (Clemson) with an organizational team of Darryl DesMarteau (Clemson), William Coggio (3M), B. Ameduri (CNRS), Pat Cassidy (Texas State) and Chris Topping (Clemson). Excellent program with 43 speakers (large workshop). Anticipated 95 attendees with 60 full-paying. Have 72 registered to date with 27 full-paying. Looks good as usual!
2005
Advances in Materials for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells 2005
February 20-23, 2005
Asilomar Conference Ctr., Monterrey, CA
Co-Chairs: Jim McGrath (VA Tech), Tom Zawodzinski (Case Western Reserve)
The location is secured and the budget is approved.
Polymers in Photonics
June 5-8, 2005
Wyndham Orlando Resort, Orlando, FL
Co-Chairs: Kevin Belfield (U. Central Florida), Tom Smith (U. Rochester), Paul Armistead (ONR)
The budget is under preparation.
National Graduate Student Conference
June 12-16, 2005
U. Mass, Amherst,
Chair: Shaw Ling
Polymers in Biology and Medicine 2005 (4th workshop on this topic)
June 26-29, 2005
Sonoma Doubletree, Rohnert Park, CA
Co-Chairs: Buddy Ratner (U. Washington), Kathryn Urich (Rutgers), Judy Riffle (VA Tech)
This is the same site utilized for the 2002 Polymers in Biology and Medicine workshop which was well attended and well received. This was moved from 2004 to 2005 since POLY's biennial 2004 targets biomaterials/biology. After 2005, the intention is to move it back to it's timeslot coincident with the biennials.
Budget is in preparation.
Advances in Polyolefins 5
Sept. 25-28, 2005
Sonoma Doubletree, Rohnert Park, CA
Co-Chairs: Pal Arjunan (Exxon Mobil), E. Bryan Coughlin (U. Mass), James McGrath (VA Tech)
Description: The last Poyolefins workshop was held Oct. 5-8, with 87 in attendance. Polyolefins is the 5th in the series held biennially. Topics will include polyolefin characterization, catalysis, mechanical behavior, morphology and stabilization.
Budget is in preparation.
Pacific Polymer Conference 9
Dec. 10-14, 2005
Westin, Maui, Hawaii
Chairs: Jim McGrath (Pres. of PPF, VA Tech), Bill Daly (LSU)
Description:
Living Polymerizations
Polymeric Biomaterials
Batteries and Fuel Cells
Combinatorial Methods in Polymer Science
Polymers in the Marine Environment
Advances in Engineering Polymers
Novel Synthetic Routes
Polymeric Materials for Microelectronics
Magnetic Materials at the Interface of Polymer Science and Biology
Aerospace Materials and Structures
Need budget approval from the POLY treasurer. The site has been secured.
2006
Polycondensation 2006 (Istanbul?, Chair: Iskender Yilgor)
Branched Polymers for Performance: Tim Long, VA Tech
Fluoropolymers 2006: Chair, Dennis Smith
Biennial 2006 (Chair?)
2007
Macromolecules for a Safe, Sustainable and Healthy World: Chair: Kalle Levon, Brooklyn Poly, June, 2006. IUPAC sponsorship. POLY will handle the registrations.
A memorandum of understanding has been drafted (now in K. Carter's hands). Kalle Levon (Polytechnic University) and Bob Moore (POLY) have reviewed the memo and recommended that it be considered for approval by the POLY Exec. Committee. POLY will receive $10K for services (overhead) and Polytechnic University will be responsible for profit/loss if approved. There is precedent for this arrangement with this particular group and it worked well in the past.
