National Meeting Committee Reports

The following Committee Reports are available. Starting with Orlando (8/02) the reports jump to the page with Board reports for that meeting. So to get back here, you need to hit the [back] key on your browser from there.

The Division of Polymer Chemistry had approximately 464 technical papers on the program of the National Meeting in Orlando, April 7-11, 2002. These technical papers may be divided into several categories: 135 oral and 57 poster presentations in topical symposia; 53 oral presentations in special award or anniversary symposia; and 48 oral and 171 poster presentations from general contributions. Highlights included:

Other symposia covered a wide range of timely topics of fundamental and applied interest: "Self-assembled Photonic Band Gap Materials" started with tutorial lectures, and then emphasize interaction of these types of colloidal crystals with light. "Recent Advances in Polymer Synthesis: Review and Progress in Methodology and Self-Assembly" is a special one-session symposium organized by Craig Hawker reviewing a wide range of current approaches for preparing polymeric materials. "Chromogenic Phenomena in Polymers: Tunable Optical Properties" covered a broad range of topics related to electrochromic polymers/devices, photochromic/stimuli responsive polymers, electroluminescence/tunable emission, polymers for chemical- and bio-sensors, tunable reflection and optically switchable materials, imaging, storage, patterning, and new polymers. "Polymer Diffraction Methods" covered recent academic and technological developments behind this type of characterization technology, including methods, biopolymer structure, evolution of structures and blend analysis. "Chemistry and Engineering of Polyolefins," cosponsored by PMSE and SPIE focused on emerging frontiers in the field, ethylene/alpha-olefin copolymers, polypropylene: old monomer-new polymers and general materials science issues in this field.

All POLY abstracts and all Polymer Preprints for the Orlando meeting were collected by the ACS Online Abstract System (OASys). We continue to suggest improvements to ACS who now have a preprint help-line for authors to call. The system is working quite well for abstracts, but Polymer Preprints still suffer some problems, primarily in uptime and reliability of servers utilized by ACS (this meeting appeared better than past). Our turnaround is now quicker as a result of authors’ realization of expectations, so our deadline for authors has been pushed back to about one month before the ACS deadline for program chairs. For Orlando, the timing was as follows: Author deadline was November 18, 2001; symposium organizer deadline was December 2, 2001 and program chair deadline for completion of program and delivery to ACS was December 18, 2001. This is about as tight as we can achieve under the current system in terms of author deadlines.

For the Fall 2002 meeting, the deadline for submission of Polymer Preprints and ACS abstracts at OASys is April 15, 2002.

Symposium plans for meetings through Boston Fall 2002 are complete. Symposia at the meetings in New Orleans Spring 2003, New York Fall 2003 and Anaheim Spring 2004 are partly scheduled to allow for programming of more timely topics as needed (see http://www.chem.umr.edu/~poly/natl.meet.html).

The committee aims to insure that symposia cover fundamental subjects in polymer synthesis, characterization and properties on a regular basis, and topics of industrial importance. The schedule of symposia at future ACS national meetings is on the POLY web site. Suggestions for symposia are welcome at any time. A form is available at the POLY web site showing the information the committee needs to consider a symposium suggestion (http://www.chem.umr.edu/~poly/poly_link/reports/sympprop.html). Call, fax, mail, or e-mail suggestions to one of the program co-chairs, Christopher Bowman or Carrington Smith.

The Division of Polymer Chemistry had 541 technical papers on the program of the National Meeting in Chicago, August 26 - 30, 2001. These 541 technical papers may be divided into several categories: 157 oral and 77 poster presentations in topical symposia; 59 oral presentations in special award or anniversary symposia; and 60 oral and 188 poster presentations from general contributions. Highlights included:

Other symposia covered a wide range of topics of fundamental and applied interest: "Combinatorial and Highly Parallel Techniques for New Materials" started with a full session of tutorial lectures, and then addressed issues associated with synthesis, surface properties and characterization. The meeting began with a one day symposium on "Tailored Synthetic Polymers as Biomaterials" that focused on the needs in this area and the creative solutions that polymer chemistry can provide while "Advances in Photoinitiated Polymerizations" had the largest number of topical contributions and had six sessions covering topics such as cationic polymerizations, kinetics and mechanisms of free radical polymerizations, and new and emerging applications of photopolymerizations. "PVC and related Polymers" conducted a two-day symposia that addressed issues associated with the chemistry, physics and properties of these materials. "Recent Advances in Polyurethanes" was a single day symposium that continued the "Recent Advances" series that POLY has been running for the last several years while a half-day session on "Career Development in the Polymer Industry" discussed different career paths. Submissions in "Advances in Filler Technology" discussed interfaces, new materials and filler dispersion, primarily focused on utilizing real-time analytical techniques to probe both novel synthetic processes and polymer processing. As was stated in the last report, POLY is fortunate to have enthusiastic members who organize these outstanding programs for the entire polymer community. Their time commitment should not be underestimated or undervalued!

All POLY abstracts and Polymer Preprints for this meeting were collected by the ACS Online Abstract System (OASys), and this will continue in the future. We continue to suggest improvements to ACS and solicit input from our organizers and submitters to present to ACS. The system works well for abstracts, but issues surrounding the format and content of Polymer Preprints must be addressed. Far fewer problems occurred during preprint submission at this meeting; however, the timing of the availability of preprints to the editors remains an issue.

Symposium plans for the Orlando meeting in Spring 2002 are complete while those for Boston in Fall 2002 are nearly complete. The 2003 schedule is largely complete, and a number of commitments further into the future have also been made.

The committee aims to insure that symposia cover fundamental subjects in polymer synthesis, characterization and properties on a regular basis, and topics of industrial importance. The schedule of symposia at future ACS national meetings is on the POLY web site. Suggestions for symposia are welcome at any time. A form is available at the POLY web site showing the information the committee needs to consider a suggestion. Call, fax, mail, or e-mail suggestions to one of the program co-chairs, Christopher Bowman or Carrington Smith.

The Division of Polymer Chemistry had 409 technical papers on the program of the National Meeting in San Diego, April 1-5, 2001. These 409 technical papers may be divided into several categories: 168 oral and 76 poster presentations in topical symposia; 38 oral presentations in special award or anniversary symposia; and 30 oral and 97 poster presentations from general contributions. Highlights included:

Other symposia covered a wide range of topics of fundamental and applied interest: "Durability of Plastics and Rubbers" started with a full session of tutorial lectures, and then emphasized commercial aspects of polymer aging and reliability, including both practical and fundamental aspects. "Opportunities and Needs in Polymer Science for Measurement Techniques, Standards, and Future Technologies" celebrated the NIST centennial and included primarily NIST or NIST alumni speakers. "In-Situ Spectroscopy in Monomer and Polymer Synthesis" primarily focused on utilizing real-time analytical techniques to probe both novel synthetic processes and polymer processing. "Silicones and Silicone-Modified Materials" covered recent academic and technological developments behind these specialized multi-application materials. "High Resolution NMR Spectroscopy of Polymers" also began with a full session of tutorial speakers, and then focused on solution, solid state, biopolymer, polymer separations and dynamics applications. POLY is fortunate to have enthusiastic members who organize these outstanding programs for the entire polymer community.

POLY policy now is to provide review or tutorial material at the beginning of all symposia so that beginners can gain background needed to understand the current research presented later. All but two of the topical symposia at the San Diego meeting had from one long lecture to one half-day session of tutorial material.

All POLY abstracts and all Polymer Preprints for the San Francisco, Washington and San Diego meetings were collected by the ACS Online Abstract System (OASys) and this will continue into the future. We continue to suggest improvements to ACS. The system is working quite well for abstracts, but Polymer Preprints still suffer some problems, primarily in uptime and reliability of servers utilized by ACS. An improved version of preprint submission should be considered.

For the Fall 2001 meeting, the deadline for submission of Polymer Preprints and ACS abstracts at OASys is April 13, 2001.

Symposium plans for the Chicago meeting in Fall 2001 are complete while those for Orlando in Spring 2002 and Boston in Fall 2002 are nearly complete. Future national meeting is currently open and plans are underway to begin filling some future slots.

The committee aims to insure that symposia cover fundamental subjects in polymer synthesis, characterization and properties on a regular basis, and topics of industrial importance. The schedule of symposia at future ACS national meetings are on the POLY web site. Suggestions for symposia are welcome at any time. A form is available at the POLY web site showing the information the committee needs to consider a suggestion. Call, fax, mail, or e-mail suggestions to one of the program co-chairs, Christopher Bowman or Carrington Smith.

Programming - W. Ford, K. Havelka

The response to the Spring 2000 National Meeting in San Francisco was overwhelmingly positive with record-breaking attendance of over 18,000 people. This enabled the Division of Polymer Chemistry to host one of its largest programs ever with over 600 presentations in diverse areas of polymer science. POLY’s multidisciplinary program covered a broad spectrum of polymer synthesis and characterization topics of industrial and academic significance. Two symposia, Synthetic Macromolecules with Higher Structural Order and Mass Spectral Analysis of Polymers, started with tutorials that provided background information that provided a baseline for presentations that covered the current state of technology in these exciting areas. Other symposia that reviewed the state-of-art technology, included: Polymeric Bioconjugates; Transition Metals in Polymers and Polymerization; Polymer Processing in Microgravity; Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Polymers; Light Emitting, Light Harvesting and Light Responding Organic Systems; and Polymer Gels. The program was highlighted by two award symposia and an awards reception: ACS Award in Polymer Chemistry honoring Jean M. Frechet, and P. J. Flory Award in Polymer Education honoring Jim Mark. POLY also contributed to the Macromolecular Secretariat symposium on Frontiers in Polymer Science in the 21st Century.

POLY’s programming policy is to provide review or tutorial material at the beginning of all symposia so that beginners can gain background needed to understand the current research presented later. All POLY abstracts and all Polymer Preprints for the San Francisco meeting were collected electronically by the ACS Online Abstract System (OASys). OASys ran smoothly for the San Francisco meeting except for some down time due to server overload. ACS promised to increase server capacity to avoid such problems at future meetings. We continue to suggest improvements to ACS. Polymer Preprint submission at OASys encountered some first-time problems, which are mentioned in the report of the Polymer Preprint editor.

For the Spring 2001 meeting, the deadline for submission of Polymer Preprints as well as ACS abstracts at OASys tentatively is November 15, 2000. Check the ACS or the POLY web site in September to be sure of the date. Symposium plans for meetings through San Diego in Spring 2001 are complete. Symposia at the meetings in Chicago Fall 2001, Orlando Spring 2002, and Boston Fall 2002 are partly scheduled. POLY will celebrate its 50th anniversary at the Spring 2001 meeting with a 2-day symposium looking into the future of Polymer Chemistry.

The Spring 2000 meeting was Kathleen Havelka’s last official responsibility as Program Chair, and Warren Ford will conclude his term with the Fall 2000 meeting. New Co-chairs of the Program Committee are Christopher Bowman of the Univ. of Colorado and Carrington Smith of Air Products Corp., who will serve national meetings 2001-2003.

The committee aims to insure that symposia cover fundamental subjects in polymer synthesis, characterization and properties on a regular basis, and topics of industrial importance. Suggestions for symposia are welcome at any time. A form is available at the POLY web site showing the information the committee needs to consider a suggestion. Call, fax, mail, or e-mail suggestions to one of the program co-chairs, Christopher Bowman or Carrington Smith.