PPS-30: Polymer Processing Society celebrated its 30th International Conference

The Polymer Processing Society (PPS) celebrated its 30th International Conference (PPS-30) during June 8-12, 2014, in Cleveland, Ohio, with close to 600 attendees from all over the world.

PPS is a truly international professional society of scientists and engineers working in the fields of polymer materials science and engineering. PPS was founded in March 1985 at The University of Akron under the stewardship of the late Dr. James L. White, and many of our graduates from the late 1980s and early 1990s played key roles in its subsequent growth. The intent of founding this new professional society was to provide a conduit and a common platform to foster interactions among scientists and engineers and to present and publish exciting research results on unique features of polymeric materials and their processing characteristics.

UA’s Department of Polymer Engineering served as host of the first (PPS-1), tenth (PPS-10), and twentieth (PPS-20) PPS conferences. The society has grown substantially in the last ten years and can no longer accommodate the PPS meeting in Akron. Thus, we had to move PPS-30 to Cleveland to take advantage of larger hotel offerings as well as a variety of restaurants and entertainment opportunities. Nevertheless, several faculty members – Drs. Cakmak, Gong, Isayev, Simmons, Min, and Zacharia – as well as Sarah Thorley, Marj Parrish (polymer science) and approximately 15 graduate students played key roles in the organization of PPS-30.

The conference fielded 55 keynote presentations by invited researchers from many fields of research. The highlights of the conference were the six plenary talks given by speakers from industry and academia which covered topics from medical implants, photonic crystals, polymer applications in oil fields, carbon nanomaterials, application development with engineering polymers, and the importance of quality assessment and control in industrial research. The Department of Polymer Engineering’s productive research portfolio was highlighted in both poster and oral presentations given by graduate students and faculty members.

PPS-30 also paid tribute with honorary sessions to the lifetime contributions of distinguished members, Dr. Donald R. Paul and Prof. H.E.H. Meijer. Another special session was held in memory of two prominent members of PPS – the late Profs. Marino Xanthos and Xi Xu. In addition, the conference recognized the winners of the Morand Lambla Award and James L. White Innovation Award.

Close to 600 attendees from 37 countries enjoyed the technical program, as well as social events that included steel drum and jazz music, and tours of the City of Cleveland and the National Polymer Innovation Center at The University of Akron. The largest number of attendees came from the United States (165), followed by China (58), Canada (48), Germany (46), Japan (40), France (21), and Austria (20).

More information is available at the PPS website, http://psfebus.allenpress.com/eBusPOPR/.

Article written by: Dr. Sadhan Jana janas@uakron.edu