The International Symposium on Ionic Polymerization is a major world gathering on this important topic within the field of polymer chemistry. The next meeting (IP??11) will be in Akron, OH, on July 10-15, 2011. The co-organizers are Professor Judit Puskas (U. of Akron) and Professor Robson Storey (The U. of Southern Mississippi).
Ionic polymerizations find critical applications in the fields of synthetic rubber, lubricating oil and fuel additives, resins, tackifiers, and adhesives, engineering plastics, architectural sealants, and more recently, bio-medical polymers. The kinetic and mechanistic understanding of living polymerizations, which has led to an ongoing revolution in polymer synthetic control, was pioneered first in the area of ionic polymerizations. Ionic polymerizations are complex processes due to multiple states of association between the growing ion and its counterion and the strong effect of reaction conditions on the partitioning of the chains among these states. The field of ionic polymerization remains a challenging and fertile area of scientific endeavor. The symposium will explore latest developments across the broad horizon of all types of ionic polymerizations and their resulting materials.
The International Symposium on Ionic Polymerization provides a critical forum for the exchange of ideas and expertise within this field and helps foster entirely new research directions. Especially critical to this process is the involvement of younger scientists. Therefore, IP??11 will include a special session entitled ?gRising Stars,?h consisting of younger speakers and discussion leaders. This will enhance the positive, broader impact of the symposium on the scientific community as a whole, by promoting the professional and scientific development of our future leaders in this important technical area. Travel awards will be made to a number of these younger scientists using the requested funds.
The International Symposium on Ionic Polymerization, IP’11, took place July 10-15, 2011, in Akron, OH. IP’11 was held under the auspices of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemists (IUPAC), and registration, lodging, and meeting logistics were handled in cooperation with the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society. The technical co-organizers of the symposium were Professor Judit Puskas (U. of Akron) and Professor Robson Storey (The U. of Southern Mississippi). The attendance was approximately 200 persons. This NSF award was used to provide partial registration/travel support for 10 scientists to attend IP’11. The ten persons who received support were: Dr. David Morgan, The University of Southern Mississippi; Ms. Young Chang, Chevron Oronite Company; Dr. Andrew Magenau, Carnegie Mellon University; Dr. Marc Hillmyer, University of Minnesota; Dr. Donghui Zhang, Louisiana State University; Dr. Timothy Long, Virginia Tech University; Dr. Li Jia, The University of Akron; Dr. Rudolf Faust, The University of Massachusetts Lowell; Dr. James Crivello, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Dr. Roderick Quirk, The University of Akron. A special session in honor of Professor Joseph Kennedy, who founded the IP symposia series in 1976, was held on the opening day of the meeting, Sunday, July 10, to recognize his important historical role. This session and all subsequent oral sessions were convened in the Goodyear Polymer Center Auditorium on the University of Akron campus. In keeping with Dr. Kennedy’s scientific and technical contributions to the field of Polymer Science, the themes of this special session were Design and Engineering of Polymers and Polymers in Medicine and Biology. Professors Puskas and Storey chaired this session, and the following speakers gave lectures: Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, Carnegie Mellon University; Virgil Percec, University of Pennsylvania; Rudolf Faust, University of Massachusetts Lowell; Robson F. Storey, The University of Southern Mississippi; Judit E Puskas, The University of Akron. The special session concluded with an address by Professor Kennedy entitled, "Novel PIB-Based Polyurethanes and Polyureas with Unprecedented Combinations of Properties." The remainder of the meeting was organized into morning and afternoon sessions, Monday through Thursday, July 11-14, and a final morning session on Friday, July 15. Major scientific and technological themes addressed by the various presenters included controlled synthesis of polymers, bio-based and sustainable/renewable polymeric materials, and polymers in biology and medicine. In addition, various activites were scheduled in the evenings, including a poster session for graduate students and other younger scientists on Tuesday evening. The poster session, chaired by Professor Lian Hutchings of Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom, offered valuable educational and professional development experience to these young scientists by giving them the opportunity to present and discuss their work with the scientific leaders in their field. Day five, Thursday, July 14, featured a "Rising Stars" oral lecture session in the morning. Of all the elements of the symposium, the Rising Stars session had the greatest positive, broader impact on the scientific community as a whole, since it offered the opportunity for professional and scientific development of our future leaders in this important technical area. The Rising Stars session consisted of 13 lectures from young, up-and-coming scientists from all over the world. NSF funding was particularly important to this feature of the symposium. All of the USA participants in the Rising Stars session (except for one person local to the Akron area) received travel support directly from NSF funds. These persons were: Dr. David Morgan, The University of Southern Mississippi; Professor Donghui Zhang, Louisiana State University; Dr. Andrew Magenau, Carnegie Mellon University.
