Spring 2018 Newsletter

Chair Statement

Dear DPOLY members. The DPOLY executive committee and other service committees are already working to make this next year successful and impactful for the DPOLY membership. Much planning and discussions are already underway to make the 2019 March meeting a huge success. Additionally, the committees are working hard on outreach and new membership in the division. Important for you to know is that the deadlines for nominations for the Polymer Physics Prize, the Dillon Medal, and DPOLY Fellowship are all due June 1st. Do begin planning with your colleagues in order to put packages together for these important awards and recognition from our division. Also time sensitive is that proposals for Focus Sessions and Invited Sessions for the March 2019 meeting currently are being collected by the 2019 program chair, Prof. David Simmons. Are you passionate about a new, interdisciplinary area? Are there recent, new insights into well-established areas? Have you always wanted to meet and hang out with a particular academic, industrial, or international researcher? Propose a session and help fill the March meeting with excellent content. Finally, be sure to renew your membership in DPOLY and encourage your friends, colleagues, and students to do the same. The division is best able to provide an excellent March meeting, award and fellowship programs, and new online and industrial involvement initiatives with a strong membership.

Sincerely,

Darrin Pochan

Deadlines

April deadlines for other activities are noted in this newsletter.

June 1 - Nominations for the Polymer Physics Prize, Dillon Medal and APS Fellowship are due Friday, June 1.

June 15 - Please send proposals for the 2019 March meeting.
FocusSessions: simmons.davids@gmail.com
ShortCourse: alfrisc@sandia.gov

July 1 - Application for the Ovshinsky Sustainable Energy Fellowship (GERA). Due Wednesday, July 1.

October 26 - March meeting abstracts.

October 26 - Nomination for Frank J. Padden Jr. award.
Send nominations by email to Amalie Frischknecht using the subject line "Padden_name of student".

2018 March Meeting News

Student awards at the 2018 March Meeting:

Dinic wins the Frank J Padden Jr Award
Jelena Dinic (advised by Vivek Sharma at University of Illinois at Chicago) won the Frank J Padden Jr Award for her talk entitled “Extensional relaxation times of dilute and semi-dilute polymer solutions”.

We are grateful to the College of Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Akron for sponsoring this award symposium.

APS DPOLY Poster Competition

  • First place: Danielle Mai, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Advisor Brad Olsen
  • Second place: Rituparna Samanta, The University of Texas at Austin, Advisor Venkat Ganesan
  • Third Place: Alexa Kuenstler, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Advisor Ryan Hayward.

We are grateful to the Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics for once again sponsoring the awards for our three winners. Their support is invaluable to the success of this event. In addition, over 35 members of DPOLY volunteered to contribute their time to judge this event. Their contributions made this a success.

Invited Presentations from 2018
If you want to disseminate your invited talk further please upload your slides to APS. To view presentations that have been uploaded visit APS.

Programming and Membership
At the business meeting, Sanat Kumar and others urged growth in DPOLY’s presence and participation at the March Meeting. Minutes of the business meeting can be found here.

Thanks to the 2018 Program Committee chaired by Ryan Hayward.

Thanks to Chinedum Osuji for chairing our Membership Committee.

To join DPOLY or renew your membership, please go to the DPOLY website. The division pays for the first year of membership for first time members. Please encourage others to join. Thanks.

DPOLY Program for 2019 APS March Meeting

The next APS March Meeting is March 4-8, 2019 in Boston, MA.

Focus sessions and invited sessions are crucial to support our vibrant and evolving field. All DPOLY members are encouraged to propose topics for these sessions.

Please contact the 2019 Program Chair, David Simmons with input.

Please contact Amalie Frischknecht with ideas for the Short Course.

Get Connected Online

Please join DPOLY’s online sites webpage with announcements of meetings and positions available, resumes, journal feeds (administered by Chinedum Osuji) and Facebook page. (moderated by Zahra Fakhraai and Chinedum Osuji)

Upcoming Meetings of Interest

(note deadlines)

Summer School: Active Matter and Non-equilibrium Statistical Physics
Gerhard Gompper, Cristina Marchetti, Julien Tailleur, and Julia Yeomans are organizing a 2018 Les Houches Summer School on "Active Matter and Non-equilibrium Statistical Physics," to be held in the French Alps, from August 27 until September 21 this year. Please apply April 1, 2018.

Summer School: Methods and Applications of Small Angle Neutron Scattering and Reflectometry will be held from June 19 - June 23, 2018 at the NIST Center for Neutron Research. Please apply April 2, 2018.

AIChE Excellence in Graduate Polymer Research
Please submit nomination packages (which include the advisor’s letter of support, nominee’s CV, and title of the student’s talk submitted to a normal session in Area 8A) to mwang@northwestern.edu and mlrobertson@uh.edu. Deadline is normal AIChE date of April 18, 2018.

Polymer Physics Gordon Research Conference (and associated GRS), July 21-22 and 22-27, 2018
Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA. Students should apply by April 21 to be considered for an oral presentation, or by June 23 to attend (apply early!). Applications due June 24 (apply early!)

International Student Summer Programme on X-Ray and Neutron Science
September 2-29, 2018 - Grenoble, France. Contact: summerschool-2018@esrf.fr. Apply by April 23, 2018.

Gordon Research Conference: Complex Active and Adaptive Material Systems
January 27-February 1, 2019 - Ventura Beach Marriott, Ventura, CA


This DPOLY newsletter was edited by Steve Hudson, DPOLY Secretary-Treasurer.