Prizes & Awards

Frank J. Padden Jr. Award

Sponsored since 1997 by the College of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Akron

• The Award recognizes a graduate student for "Excellence in Polymer Physics Research."
• The student must be a member of the DPOLY, must be working toward the Ph.D. degree.
• The student must not have completed the requirements for the Ph.D. before the due date for nominations.

Call for Nominations

The Frank J. Padden, Jr. Award, consisting of a certificate and appropriate recognition, honors a graduate student for "Excellence in Polymer Physics Research." To be considered for this award the student must be a member of DPOLY, must be working toward the Ph.D. degree, and must not have completed the requirements for the Ph.D. before the application deadline. A nomination package consists of the following:

1. An acceptable abstract for a contributed talk in the DPOLY program at the March Meeting. Please submit the abstract on-line directly to the APS, and provide an electronic copy for the DPOLY Education Committee, as described further below.
2. A 2-page curriculum vitae (do NOT send papers or other attachments),
3. A nominating letter addressing the quality of the graduate research and academic excellence. The nominator may be the thesis adviser or another individual familiar with the student and his/her work. Individuals may make only a single nomination in a given year.

Send nominations by email to Ryan Hayward using the subject line "Padden_name of student". Paper nominations will not be accepted. The deadline for receipt of all materials is the general deadline for March Meeting abstract submission (October 22 this year).

APS abstract submission must meet the general deadline for March Meeting abstract submission. The abstract should be submitted to Sorting Category 01 and in the template space for Special Instructions, enter "Padden Award Symposium". The abstract will be forwarded to the Program Chair for inclusion in the March Meeting DPOLY program, either in the Padden Award Symposium if the nominee is selected as a finalist, or in the appropriate technical category otherwise.

The Education Committee will select 5 finalists (or more, if the candidates are exceptionally strong) based on the materials provided. At the March Meeting, finalists will be invited to a celebratory dinner (sponsored by the University of Akron) with members of the DPOLY Education Committee, and participate in the Padden Award Symposium. Each of the finalists will give a 12-minute (including time for questions) oral presentation. The session will be attended by the Education Committee, who will serve as judges, and by any other interested members of DPOLY or APS. The winner will be selected based on quality of the research, the presentation, and response to questions. The winner will be announced at the annual DPOLY Business Meeting.

2021 Frank J. Padden Jr. Award Recipient

Julia Early
University of Minnesota

Background:
Julia received her B.S. in chemistry in 2016 from Texas A&M University, where she conducted undergraduate research for Prof. Lei Fang. In the Fang group, Julia worked on the synthesis of electron donor-acceptor alternating ladder-type polymers for applications in organic photovoltaic devices. In 2021, Julia received her Ph.D. in chemistry advised by Prof. Tim Lodge at the University of Minnesota. In the Lodge group, her research used temperature-jump dynamic light scattering (T-jump DLS), synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy (LP-TEM) on block copolymers (BCPs) synthesized by anionic polymerization to develop a quantitative understanding of micelle fragmentation in ionic liquids (ILs).

Julia presented her work, titled “Direct Observation of Block Copolymer Micelle Fragmentation,” exploring the molecular mechanisms for BCP micellization and equilibration. Previous studies on BCP micelle fragmentation were limited to ensemble averaging techniques such as SAXS and DLS; individual particles were imaged by ex-situ TEM. This work demonstrated the direct observation of fragmentation for three molecular weights of 1,2-polybutadiene-block-poly(ethylene oxide) micelles in ILs using high-temperature LP-TEM, which provides unique insights into the evolution of BCP micelles during fragmentation. Upon heating to 170 ºC a sequence of morphological transitions from a spherical micelle, to a prolate ellipsoid, then a “peanut” shape, followed by a two-spherical-compartment micelle was observed, where the “peanut” shape is presumed to be close to the transition state.¹

¹Early, J. T.; Yager, K. G.; Lodge, T. P. ACS Macro. Lett., 2020, 9, 756 – 761.