PMSE Graduate Student Travel Award
The PMSE Graduate Student Travel Award is given to provide partial travel support to women and/or under-represented (African American, Hispanic, or Native American) graduate students to attend and present their research at ACS national meetings.
2025 Award Winners
The PMSE Graduate Student Travel Award is given to provide partial travel support to women and/or under-represented (African American, Hispanic, or Native American) graduate students to attend and 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 Spring 2025 ACS Meeting in San Diego and invites you to attend their presentations.
SIERRA YOST
The Pennsylvania State University
Advisors: Bryan Vogt and Christian Pester

Physical aging in additively manufactured PETG
Symposium: Characterization and Prediction of Properties of Polymeric Materials
Date: Sunday, March 23, 2025
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Place: Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina, Pacific Ballroom, Section 15
MENG JIANG
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Advisor: Josh Worch

Employing dynamic covalent chemistry for recyclable and adaptable electronic materials
Symposium: Novel Applications of Polymeric Materials
Date: Monday, March 24, 2025
Time: 9:15 a.m.
Place: Marriott Marquis, San Diego Marina, Pacific Ballroom, Section 24
NATALIE MAMROL
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Advisor: Gregory Rutledge

Screening of biobased furanoate polyesters for sustaining fibers
Symposium: Advancing Polymer Science: Integrating High Throughput Techniques and Digital Technologies for Sustainability and More
Date: Monday, March 24, 2025
Time: 8:35 a.m.
Award Details
A minimum of four awards will be made yearly, two for each of the National ACS Meetings. Each awardee will receive a $500 award to be applied to costs of her/his travel to the meeting. Awardees will be acknowledged at the PMSE/POLY Awards Ceremony at the National ACS Meeting.
History
The award was originally established in 2018.
Nominations
Nomination packages should follow package submission guidelines detailed below.
Applications will be reviewed by the PMSE Graduate Student Travel Award committee. The selection will be made prior to the conference via email.
Past Recipients
Award Details
Purpose
The Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) Division presents the PMSE Graduate Student Travel Award to provide partial travel support to under-represented graduate students and present the research at ACS National Meetings.
Rules of Eligibility
PMSE members who are female and/or under-represented (African American, Hispanic, or Native American) graduate students performing research in fields related to polymer science and engineering are encouraged to apply. US citizens or permanent residents, full-time graduate students at the time of application, and submission of an abstract (as presenter) to a PMSE symposium at a National ACS Meeting are required. The awardee MUST be a member of the PMSE Division. Note that the first year of Division membership is free, and subsequent years are $1 for students. If you are not a member, you can join by visiting the website: https://pmsedivision.org/join/
Abstracts presented in another division will not be considered, and the awardee MUST be presenting their work as a poster or oral presentation during a PMSE symposium.
Nomination Process
Eligible students are required to submit an online application.
In preparation for submission, the online form will request the following information:
• Nominee Contact Information
• Advisor Information
• Graduate Date
• Abstract Information
Eligible students are required to submit an online application. There is no currently active application available, but the application structure can be seen at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PMSE-CHI22.
For ACS Spring meetings, please check back in January and February for updated application and deadline dates. For ACS Fall meetings, please check back in June and July for an updated application and deadline dates. Dates vary based on the timing for the conference.
Award Selection
Applications will be reviewed by the PMSE Graduate Student Travel Award committee.
Award Announcement and Nature
Selection will be made prior to the conference via email. Awardees will be notified by the PMSE Graduate Student Travel Award committee.
Each awardee will receive a $500 award to be applied to costs of her/his travel to the meeting. Awardees will be acknowledged at the PMSE/POLY Awards Ceremony at the National ACS Meeting.
Full List of Award Winners
Year | Meeting | Winner | University | Presentation Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
2025 | Spring | Sierra Yost | The Pennsylvania State University | Physical aging in additively manufactured PETG |
2025 | Spring | Meng Jiang | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | Employing dynamic covalent chemistry for recyclable and adaptable electronic materials |
2025 | Spring | Natalie Mamrol | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Screening of biobased furanoate polyesters for sustaining fibers |
2024 | Fall | Kacie Wells | North Carolina State University | Thermoplastic elastomers with inherent antimicrobial properties for reduction in the spread of harmful microbes |
2024 | Fall | Nan (Louise) Chen | Johns Hopkins University | Enhancing electrical conductivity and power factor in poly-glycol-bithienylthienothiophene with oligoethylene glycol side chains through tris(pentafluorophenyl) borane doping |
2023 | Fall | Elizabeth Murphy | University of California, Santa Barbara | Accelerated Discovery of Block Copolymers through Automated Chromatography |
2023 | Fall | Atalaya Wilborn | Harvard University | Dynamic Gaussian Shape Morphs via Magnetically Aligned Liquid Crystal Elastomer Films |
2023 | Fall | Hannah Dedmon | North Carolina State University | Antiplasticizing Interaction between Aldaric Acid Isomers and Polyacrylonitrile for Improved Gel Spinning |
2023 | Spring | Erin Crater | Virginia Tech | Quantitative Analysis of Liquid Metal-Polymer Composite Morphology via X-ray Scattering |
2023 | Spring | Jackie Zhu | Virginia Tech | Enhancing enzyme-triggered H2S-induced Cytotoxicity in Glioma via a Supramolecular Peptide-iron Mate3rials |
2022 | Fall | Sofia Goodrich | University of Florida | Imine Core-crosslinked Stars for Tunable Degradation and Release |
2022 | Fall | McKenna Hanson | University of Minnesota | Understanding the Effects of Cationic Type and Architecture of Antisense Oligonucleotide Delivery |
2022 | Fall | Julie Rieland | University of Michigan | Sticky Situation: Pressure Sensitive Adhesives Applied in the Capture of Aqueous Microplastics |
2022 | Fall | Thivani Senathiraja | Iowa State University | Creating Multiblock Ionomer Structures via Salt Complexation in Solvent Systems |
2022 | Spring | Amalie Atassi | Georgia Institute of Technology | Thermal conductivity is independent of topochemical polymerization in organic materials |
2022 | Spring | Rachel Detwiler | University of Utah | Development in transition metal catalyzed N-carboxyanhydride polymerization: Preparation of polyproline materials |
2022 | Spring | Kristin Lewis | Univ of Colorado, Boulder | Subcritical Phase Transitions in Supramolecular Liquid Crystalline Elastomers |
2022 | Spring | Ani Nazari | Arizona State University | Hydrophobic Polymers with Various Ion Exchange Capacities for Direct Air Capture of Carbon Dioxide |
2019 | Fall | Abigail Delawder | Washington University of Saint Louis | Synthesis, self-assembly, and photomechanical gel actuator performance of a sequence-defined polyviologen crosslinker |
2019 | Fall | Stephanie Aguilar | UCLA | Electrostatically varied grafted copolymers for enhancing multivalent ion rejection for nanofiltration |
2019 | Spring | Bonnie Buss | Colorado State University | Organocatalyzed atom transfer radical polymerization in continuous photo-flow reactors |
2019 | Spring | Meghan Lamm | University of South Carolina | Plant oil-derived emulsion polymers with post-polymerization induced mechanical enhancement |
2018 | Fall | Julia Pribyl | University of South Carolina | Poly(4-vinylpyridine) grafted polyHIPE foams for high performance plutonium separations |
2018 | Fall | Samuel Leguizamon | University of Michigan | Selective, information-directed dynamic covalent assembly of sequence-specific peptoids |
2018 | Spring | Symone Cook-Alexander | Case Western Reserve University | Molecular gel composites: From solution to solid-state reversibility |
2018 | Spring | Jennifer Imbrogno | University of Texas at Austin | Structure-kinetic relationships for mono(μ-oxo)-dialuminum initiators for epoxide polymerization |