This award supports the participation of US investigators and graduate students in the ISBP2014 to be held in Santos, Brazil, from Sep. 28 - Oct. 1, 2014. The meeting has a primary focus on biopolymers and biodegradable plastics. The value of this meeting is the discussion of the latest results in the field of biopolymers from a perspective at the interface of microbiology, metabolic engineering, polymer engineering and materials science. Bioplastics have the potential to capture a significant segment of the petrochemical plastics market offsetting green gas emissions. In addition, many are biodegradable. As such they will help reduce the burgeoning waste problems from nonbiodegradable plastics. These polymers can be made in biorefineries or in engineered plants or algae and will create opportunties for economic development and new jobs.
NSF support will help ensure the success of the meeting by providing travel and conference costs for US academic scientists and engineers with an emphasis on underrepresented groups and graduate students. In the absence of NSF support, many US academic scientists and graduate students would not be able to attend and benefit from interactions with the international community in the field of biopolymers.
The award from the Biotechnology, Biochemical, and Bioengineering Program of the CBET Division is co-sponsored by the Biomaterials Program of the Division of Materials Research.
