The University of Akron and the College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering experienced huge success at the Microscopy Society of Northeast Ohio’s sixty-first annual May Conference.
The Microscopy Society of Northeast Ohio (MSNO) is a group of professionals and students whose common interest is microscopy, the technical field of using microscopes to view what cannot be seen with the naked eye. Members are associated with local universities, research hospitals, and the commercial industry.
The annual conference features many distinguished presenters and awards students for their research, presentations, and posters. This year’s conference took place at John Carroll University on May 24th, and 171 people were in attendance. Students from The College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering and UA students who use the facilities in the National Polymer Innovation Center won in multiple categories. UA student participation accounted for half of the oral presentations and posters. Many UA alumni working in local companies attended as well.
Among those who gave oral presentations at the conference were Dr. Mark Foster, professor of polymer science, Michael Presby, a Ph.D. student, Devesh Dadhich Shreeram, a Ph.D. candidate, and Diane Smith, polymer science graduate assistant, all from The University of Akron. George Nikolov, Ph.D., is the Instrumentation Scientist for the National Polymer Innovation Center, and he chaired a session on XRD.
Michael Presby (Mechanical Engineering, Advisor: Morscher) took home the MSNO award for his talk “Characterizing Impact Damage of Ceramic Matrix Composites using Micro-Computed Tomography and Optical Microscopy.” The award is $100 for the oral presentation in addition to up to $500 to attend the National Microscopy and Microanalysis Meeting in 2018.
Alex Nyarko (Polymer Science, Advisor: Dhinojwala) took home 2nd place for his oral presentation and a $50 monetary prize for the talk “Understanding the Chemical Composition of the Caulobacter Crescentus Adhesive Holdfast.”
Sofia Chinchila (NEOMED, Advisor: Lin) placed 3rd for oral presentation and won a $25 monetary prize for the talk “Quantification and Characterization of Coronary Collateral Arteries using Micro-Computerized Tomography (CT).”
Siddhesh Dalvi (Polymer Science, Advisor: Dhinojwala) won 1st place for a poster in the Physical Sciences section and took home a $100 monetary prize for the poster “Direct Evidence of Unsaturated Carbon Formed Using Plasma Polymerization.”
Mohammad Umar Farooq Khan (CBE, Advisor: Gupta) won 2nd place and a $50 monetary prize for the poster “Advanced Spectroscopic Techniques for Studying the Passivation Characteristics of Cr and Na2CrO4 Containing Al.”
Congratulations to all the students, faculty, and alumni who were honored at this conference.