ACS Fall 2021 National Meeting will be held virtually and in person in Atlanta, CA from August 22 to August 26, 2021. PMSE is pleased to sponsor 13 symposia along with co-sponsored symposia with the Division of Polymer Chemistry.
Awards and invited symposium for the meeting include:
- ACS Award in Applied Polymer Science to Dirk J. Broer
- Bioconjugate Chemistry Lectureship to Chunying Chen
- Kathryn C. Hach Award for Entrepreneurial Success to Craig J. Hawker
- Journal of Polymer Science Innovation Award to Garret M. Miyake
- Roy W. Tess Award to Shanti Swarup
Attend the Virtual Conference
Live technical sessions will be held weekdays August 22 – 26. On-demand content will be available starting August 22 until September 30.
The full preface for Atlanta is available for view as a PDF.

Chair’s Message
To the PMSE family, I hope everyone is safe, healthy, and have adjusted to a continually changing new normal.
We are a go for the upcoming fall meeting although it will be different yet again. ACS has continued its stance re the virtual platform and will now enable ‘live’ presentations, the type that we have all become so used to in our daily work and personal lives. Several months ago, each division was allowed to select whether it wanted to be in-person or virtual in Atlanta as the pandemic situation appeared to be headed in a favorable direction. PMSE chose virtual out of precaution back then; POLY chose in-person and so it will be a fractured meeting from my perspective. The random meetings of colleagues in the hallways and meeting rooms will be greatly diminished. Up until a month ago, some of us were wondering if in-person might have been the best way to go but as the rapidly changing COVID numbers driven by the highly contagious delta variant recently indicate, PMSE’s caution now seems prescient.
As I write this, I am currently sitting at my first ‘in-person’ technical meeting since the pandemic started. It is small, people are cautious, but most importantly, the ‘interaction’ dynamic is a real thing. Hopefully we will be back to ‘normal’ – full in-person at next Spring’s meeting, but until then, we will endeavor to have a technically vibrant, interactive, and fulfilling meeting. For those of you who might be in Atlanta, I hope to see you in person. Finally, a special thank you to all the volunteers of PMSE who spend so much of their time making the division top-notch.
Your chair,
Tim Bunning
Schedule – Sunday, August 22
ACS Award in Applied Polymer Science: Symposium in Honor of Dirk J. Broer
Organizer: Joanna Aizenberg, Harvard University; Christopher Bowman, University of Colorado
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
4:30 p.m. – 6:10 p.m.
Hybrid Functional Materials from Controlled Assembly of Polymer & Inorganic Nanoparticles
Organizer: Zhihong Nie, Fudan University; Jie Hie, University of Connecticut; Yao Lin, University of Connecticut; So-Jung Park, Ewha Womans University
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
4:30 p.m. – 6:10 p.m.
7:00 p.m. – 8:40 p.m.
Macromolecular Materials for Advanced Organic Electronics & Bioelectronics
Organizer: Feng Gao, Linkoping University; Sahika Inal, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology; Jianguo Mei, Purdue University;
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
4:30 p.m. – 6:20 p.m.
7:00 p.m. – 8:50 p.m.
General Papers/New Concepts in Polymeric Materials
Organizer: Daniel Savin, University of Florida
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
4:30 p.m. – 6:10 p.m.
7:00 p.m. – 8:40 p.m.
Schedule – Monday, August 23
Bioconjugate Chemistry Lectureship in Honor of Chunying Chen
Organizer: Vincent M. Rotello, University of Massachusetts; Erin Lavik, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Bradley Smith, University of Notre Dame; Jan van Hest, Radboud University Nijmegen; Gang Zheng, University of Toronto; Deirdre McDaniel, University of Massachusetts; Zhifei Dai, Peking University;
4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Kathryn C. Hach Award for Entrepreneurial Success: Symposium in Honor of Craig J. Hawker
Organizer: Jie He, University of Connecticut; Yao Lin, Organizer; Zhihong Nie, Organizer; So-Jung Park, Ewha Womans University
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Hybrid Functional Materials from Controlled Assembly of Polymer & Inorganic Nanoparticles
Organizer: Zhihong Nie, Fudan University; Jie Hie, University of Connecticut; Yao Lin, University of Connecticut; So-Jung Park, Ewha Womans University
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Polymer Nanocomposites: Fundamentals & Applications
Organizer: Robert Riggleman, University of Pennsylvania; Karen Winey, University of Pennsylvania
10:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
4:30 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.
7:00 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.
General Papers/New Concepts in Polymeric Materials
Organizer: Daniel Savin, University of Florida
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Fourth CME NASA Symposium: Chemistry for Resilient Human Space Exploration: Advanced Materials and PMSE CME Student & Mentor Awards
Organizer: Michael Meador, Meador Aerospace Materials Group, LLC; Robert Nolan, The City University of New York; George Rodriguez, Argeni; Ksenia Takhistova, CME
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Schedule – Tuesday, August 24
Journal of Polymer Science Innovation Award: Symposium in Honor of Garret M. Miyake
Organizer: Craig Hawker, University of California; Ying Jia, Wiley
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
4:30 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.
Roy W. Tess Award: Symposium in Honor of Shanti Swarup
Organizer: Dean Webster, North Dakota State University
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Hybrid Functional Materials from Controlled Assembly of Polymer & Inorganic Nanoparticles
Organizer: Zhihong Nie, Fudan University; Jie Hie, University of Connecticut; Yao Lin, University of Connecticut; So-Jung Park, Ewha Womans University
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
4:30 p.m. – 6:10 p.m.
7:00 p.m. – 8:40 p.m.
Polymer Nanocomposites: Fundamentals & Applications
Organizer: Robert Riggleman, University of Pennsylvania; Karen Winey, University of Pennsylvania
10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
General Papers/New Concepts in Polymeric Materials
Organizer: Daniel Savin, University of Florida
4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
PMSE/POLY Poster Session
Organizer: Daniel Savin, University of Florida
7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
3D-Printing in Chemistry (ANYL Division – primary organizer)
Organizer: Chengpeng Chen, University of Maryland Baltimore County
8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Microplastics & Nanoplastics: Fate & Behavior (ENVR Division – primary organizer)
Organizer: Souhail Al-Abed, US EPA; Xingmao Ma, Texas A&M University
8:00 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Schedule – Wednesday, August 25
Henkel Award for Outstanding Graduate Research in Polymer Science & Engineering Honoring Austin Evans
Organizer: William Dichtel, Northwestern University; Dr. Mahesh Mahanthappa, University of Minnesota
8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
General Papers/New Concepts in Polymeric Materials
Organizer: Daniel Savin, University of Florida
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Hybrid Functional Materials from Controlled Assembly of Polymer & Inorganic Nanoparticles
Organizer: Zhihong Nie, Fudan University; Jie Hie, University of Connecticut; Yao Lin, University of Connecticut; So-Jung Park, Ewha Womans University
10:30 a.m. – 12:10 p.m.
2:00 p.m. – 3:40 p.m.
Surface, Interface, and Coating Materials
Organizer: Zhiqiang Cao, University of Washington; Shan Jiang, Iowa State University; Minglin Ma, Cornell University; Kenan Song, Arizona State University; Wei Wang, Organizer; Xin Yong, Binghamton University
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
POLY/PMSE Awards and Plenary Presentation
Organizer: Hayley Brown, The Dow Chemical Company; Andrea Kasko, Robert Mathers, Organizer, Penn State University; Levi Moore, AFRL; Sara Orski, NIST
Plenary Speakers: “Polymers and nanocomposites to treat vascular disease without a trace.” Julia Kornfield, Caltech
4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Microplastics & Nanoplastics: Fate & Behavior Poster Sessions (ENVR Division – primary organizer)
Organizer: Souhail Al-Abed, US EPA; Xingmao Ma, Texas A&M University
7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Schedule – Thursday, August 26
Biomaterials for Tissue Engineering
Organizers: Steven Caliari, ; Shudipto Dishari, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Rachel Letteri, Texas A&M University
10:20 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
02:00pm – 03:30pm
04:30pm – 06:20pm
7:00 p.m. – 8:50 p.m.
Surface, Interface, and Coating Materials: Functional Surface
Organizers: Zhiqiang Cao, University of Washington; Shan Jiang, Iowa State University; Minglin Ma; Kenan Song, Arizona State University; Wei Wang, Organizer; Xin Yong, Organizer
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
General Papers/New Concepts in Polymeric Materials
Organizer: Daniel Savin, University of Florida
10:30 a.m. – 12:10 p.m.
2:00 p.m. – 3:40 p.m.
4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Travel Support
For PMSE members, please see the following graduate student awards to help fund travel to ACS National meetings. Please visit these links for further information on eligibility and requirements.
Additional resources are available from the American Chemical Society