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PMSE / POLY Plenary Speakers

This page shows the current and past PMSE / POLY Plenary Speakers at ACS National Meetings

As part of the award celebration on the Wednesday night of the ACS conference, a distinguished representative from the the research field of polymer science or chemistry is selected to talk as the plenary speaker. The selection is agreed upon by both the POLY and PMSE Divisions of the American Chemical Society.

Past Speakers

2024 Spring– Andrew Lovinger, National Science Foundation. “Lessons Learned from Three Decades at the Helm of Polymers at NSF”

2023 Fall – Dr. Karen Winey, University of Pennsylvania. “Polymer Chemistries for Double Gyroid Morphologies — Past, Present, and Future.”

2023 Spring – Jayshree Seth, 3M. “Not the Science Type.”

2022 Fall – Kathryn Beers, NIST. “A More Sustainable Future via Polymer Circularity.”

2022 Spring – Dr. Karen Winey, University of Pennsylvania. “Polymer Chemistries for Double Gyroid Morphologies — Past, Present, and Future.”

2021 Fall – Julia Kornfield “Polymers and nanocomposites to treat vascular disease without a trace.”

2021 Spring – Timothy D. Lodge, University of Minnesota. “Pillars of Polymer Science: A Perspective”

2020 Fall – Jeffrey Moore, University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign. “Materials Functions for Polymer Lifecycle Control.”

2020 Spring Timothy D. Lodge, University of Minnesota. “Pillars of Polymer Science: A Perspective” (Delayed to 2021)

2019 Fall – Benny Freeman, “Ion solubility, diffusivity, and transport in charged polymer membranes”

2019 Spring – Craig J. Hawker, “Power of polymer synthesis:  Translation of basic materials research into social benefits”

2018 Fall – Timothy Bunning, “Translating polymer science and engineering into practice:  Air Force Materials Science and Technology”

2018 Spring – Zhenan Bao, Stanford University; “Skin-inspired polymer electronic materials and decides”

2017 Fall – Frank S. Bates, University of Minnesota; “Frontiers in Polymer Science & Engineering

2017 Spring – Juan De Pablo, University of Chicago; “Directed Assembly of Hierarchical Polymeric materials”

2016 Fall – Dr. Christopher Bowman, University of Colorado;  “Smart polymer materials by design: Creating and implementing smart polymers with latent chemical functionality”

2016 Spring – Edmund Carnahan, The Dow Chemical Company; “Innovation in a mature field:  The commercialization of olefin block copolymers”

2015 Fall – Dr. Stephen Cheng, The University of Akron; “Polymers for optical technologies utilizing linear susceptibility”

2015 Spring – Karen Wooley, Texas A&M University; “A Celebration of the Award Winners”

2014 Fall – James L. Hedrick, IBM Research; “Organocatalytic Routes to Advanced Materials: From Semiconductors, Green Chemistry to Nanomedicine”

2014 Spring – Joseph DeSimone, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University; “Convergent Thinking to Drive New Approaches to Manufacturing”

2013 Fall – Barry Farmer, Air Force Research Laboratory; “Polymers in Aviation: Past, Present, and Future”

2013 Spring – Larry Wendling, 3M; “3M Technologies and Applications Related to Energy Market Opportunities”

2012 Fall – Paula Hammond, Massachusetts Institute of Technology;  “Macromolecular Assembly for Novel Biomaterials Micropharmacies and Delivery Platforms”

2012 Spring – David Tirrell, California Institute of Technology;  “Reinterpreting of Genetic Code”

2011 Fall – James McGrath, Virginia Tech; “Contributions of Polymer Science and Resurgent U.S. Chemical Industry to the Chemistry of Air, Space, and Water”

2011 Spring – Anthony Sinskey, MIT; “Polyhydroxyalkanoates:  Past Present, and Future”

2010 Fall – David Mooney, Harvard University; “Materials to Program Cells In Situ”

2010 Spring – Paul Bloom, Archer Daniels Midland Co.; “Opportunities for Renewable Chemicals:  Impact and Needs”