The PMSE Graduate Student Travel Award is given to provide partial travel support to graduate students to present their research at ACS national meetings in the Division of Polymeric Materials: Science & Engineering. PMSE is proud to announce the winners of this award for the Fall 2026 ACS meeting in Chicago, Illinois, and invites you to attend their presentations.
DAVID DUMAS
Stanford University
Advisors: Matthew Kanan, Robert Waymouth
Unlocking a Tetrahydrofuranic Lactone’s Potential: Synthesis, (Co)polymerization, and Catalyst Development for High-Performance Semicrystalline Polymers
Symposium: Celebrating 150 Years of Industry-Academia Collaboration in Polymers and Inorganic Materials for Societal Needs
Date: Tuesday, August 25, 2026
Time: 10:45 a.m.
Place: McCormick Place W194a
David Dumas is a 4th Year PhD Candidate in Chemistry at Stanford University working under Professor Matthew Kanan and Professor Robert Waymouth. His research focuses on the development of high-performance bio-based polyesters for general use applications. Working in the Kanan and Waymouth lab, David’s research stands at the intersection of synthesis and catalysis, specializing in biomass utilization for accessing a novel lactone monomer and designing stereoselective catalysts to polymerize it. Prior to joining Stanford, David earned his B.S. in Chemistry from UCLA, working under Professor Chong Liu. In addition, David worked under Professor Theodor Agapie as a summer Caltech WAVE Fellow.
SAMYAK CHORDIA
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Advisor: Christopher Evans
Autonomous Electrolyte Recovery After Dendritic Shorting via Dynamic Polymer Networks
Symposium: Polymeric Materials for Electrochemical Energy Storage
Date: Wednesday, August 26, 2026
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Place: McCormick Place W185bc
Samyak Chordia is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, advised by Prof. Christopher Evans. His research focuses on synthesizing dynamic polymer networks (vitrimers) as solid polymer electrolytes for next-generation lithium-ion batteries that combine high ionic conductivity, mechanical robustness, and autonomous self-healing. His work involves systematically tuning the crosslinking density and salt concentration to probe the impact on the bulk relaxation, rubbery modulus, glass transition temperature and ionic conductivity of vitrimer electrolytes (VE). Samyak has authored peer-reviewed publications in leading polymer science and energy journals, and is a co-inventor on two U.S. patent applications related to self-healing vitrimer electrolytes.