PMSE Best Poster Award

PMSE Best Poster Awards recognize outstanding posters presented by an undergraduate and/or graduate students during the PMSE poster session at ACS National Meetings

2023 Fall Awards

A distinguished group of Judges from industry, academia, and government laboratories had the task of determining the winners of the PMSE Best Poster Competition at the Fall ACS meeting in San Francisco. Congratulations to our winners, who were also recognized at the POLY/PMSE Awards Reception.

NICHOLAS KREOFSKY
University of Minnesota

Cinchona Alkaloid Polymers Demonstrate Highly Efficient Gene Delivery Dependent on Stereochemistry, Methoxy Substitution, and Length

Nicholas Kreofsky is a fourth-year Ph. D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota under the advisement of Prof. Theresa Reineke. Nicholas received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Creighton University in 2019. During his time at Creighton, he worked in Dr. James Fletcher’s research laboratory, synthesizing and screening novel organometallic compounds for use as antimicrobial agents. Upon starting graduate school, Nicholas joined the Reineke Group to study polymer-based gene delivery systems. In graduate school, he has been awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and the 3M Science and Technology Fellowship to fund his work. Nicholas’ current research is concerned with utilizing cinchona alkaloid-based polymers to efficiently deliver genetic material and uncover the structure-activity relationships within this system.

JASON M. KRONENFELD
Stanford University

3D, Shape-specific, Scalable, Micro-fabricated Particle Production via Roll-to-roll Printing and Continuous Liquid Interface Production (r2rCLIP)

Jason M. Kronenfeld is a Chemistry PhD candidate at Stanford University. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from The University of Arizona in 2021. While at UArizona, Jason trained with Dr. Benjamin J. Renquist leading work on creating a novel approach to address glycemic control for treatment of type two diabetes mellitus.

Jason is a member of Dr. Joseph M. DeSimone’s research group at Stanford where he conducts 3D printing research utilizing high-resolution continuous liquid interface production (CLIP). Focus areas include printer and resin development, roll-to-roll CLIP for en masse micro-fabricated particle production, and direct translational applications for precisely fabricated components. Support for research comes from a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Outside of the lab, Jason is involved as a graduate student representative for the Stanford Committee on Research, an editor for The Civilian (a novel, public science communication initiative), and a member of the Stanford Viennese Ball Opening Committee (a student-led waltz performance group).

CAMERON MALLOY
University of Arizona

Impact of Mechanical Properties on Molecularly Imprinted Polymers Sensing PFAS

Cameron Malloy is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Arizona under the advisement of Professor Suchol Savagatrup. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Arizona in 2021. Cameron’s research interests center around using nanotechnology and soft materials for the development of practical sensors. His doctoral research focuses on the engineering of molecularly imprinted polymers by seeking to develop a fundamental understanding of the relationship between the imprinted polymer structure and function. Understanding these underpinning mechanisms could lead to a set of design rules to produce reliable and practical sensors. Support for his research comes from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

NARELLI DE PAIVA NARCISO
Stanford University

Injectable Hydrogels for the Delivery of Minicircle-based Myocardial Infarction Therapy

Narelli is a Ph.D. Candidate in Prof. Sarah Heilshorn group, at the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Stanford University. She works in developing injectable hydrogels for minimally-invasive delivery of gene therapies to the heart. Her research focuses on applying bioconjugation techniques to functionalize recombinant proteins with dynamic covalent chemistry, and optimizing the mechanical properties of the resulting hydrogels for ease hand-injectability.”

Spring 2023 Award Winners

FELIPE FABRICIO PACCI EVARISTO
The Ohio State University
Studying Interactions between Solvated Polymer-grafted Nanoparticles via Coarse-grained Molecular Simulations

Felipe got his bachelor’s degree in geophysics at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, in 2013. He then was a visiting scholar at ETH-Zürich, Switzerland, and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a year each. After that, he obtained his master’s degree in physics at the University of Chicago in 2017. Since then, he’s been pursuing his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering at The Ohio State University, currently as a member of the Hall group.

Felipe’s experience centers on the computational modeling of various types of physical systems. He currently works on projects using coarse-graining, Molecular Dynamics, Monte Carlo, and fluids Density Functional Theory to study polymeric systems, particularly polymer-grafted nanoparticles, ionomers, and block copolymers.”

ZOE LEQUEUX
University of Southern Mississippi
Incorporation of Reduced Graphene Oxide Decorated with Iron Oxide Particles in Polyurethane Dispersions for Electromagnetic Wave Shielding

Zoë Lequeux is a third-year doctoral candidate in the School of Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Southern Mississippi, where she works in the research group of Prof. Sarah Morgan. Her research involves tailoring the morphology of polyurethane/graphene oxide nanocomposites to optimize their electromagnetic wave absorption properties and is funded by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center. She also has interests in sustainable polymers, specifically in the development of catalysts for polymer blend reprocessing. Zoë completed her undergraduate degree in Independent Engineering at Cornell and performed research in the lab of Prof. Christopher Ober on aqueous ATRP and polymer-grafted nanoparticles. She was also a middle-blocker and right-side hitter on the Cornell Division 1 volleyball team. Zoë is also passionate about Diversity and Inclusion. She serves as President of the Women in Science and Engineering organization and is a member of the Gender Equity Movement in STEM on campus. She is active in outreach and organizing community events.

HONG-GYU SEONG
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Unique Properties of Bottlebrush Polymers at Fluid Interfaces

Hong-Gyu Seong received his Bachelor and Master of Engineering degrees in Chemical Engineering at Inha University under the guidance of Professor Sang Eun Shim in 2016 and 2018, respectively. Subsequently, he moved to the United States to pursue his doctoral studies in the Polymer Science and Engineering Department of the University of Massachusetts–Amherst, where he has been since 2018. His doctoral research, under the guidance of Professors Todd Emrick and Thomas P. Russell, focuses on synthesizing bottlebrush polymers with diverse architectures and non-conventional functionalities, and investigating the nanoscopic structures of these polymers and their macroscopic properties relationship, particularly with regard to their assembly kinetics, in-plane dynamics, and mechanical properties at fluid interfaces.

Award Details

Awards will be determined at each National ACS Meeting. Each awardee will each receive a $200 award. Awardees will be acknowledged at the PMSE/POLY Awards Ceremony at the ACS National Meeting.

History

The award was established in 2017 to complement the Arthur Doolittle Award for the best presentation at a National Meeting.

Award Selection

Posters are evaluated by a group of judges, selected by the PMSE Executive Committee, during the poster session. Finalists are identified and awardees selected before the conclusion of the poster session.

Nominations and Award Process

Purpose

PMSE Best Poster Awards was formed to identify and recognize contributions outside of presentations from the PMSE symposia at ACS National Meetings.

Rules of Eligibility and Nomination Process

This award is open to current graduate-level and undergraduate-level poster presenters at an ACS meeting. Presenters must be undergraduate or graduate students at a degree granting university and need to be present during the poster session to be considered for the award. Posters are reviewed and eligibility is determined prior to the ACS National Meeting.

Award Selection

Posters are evaluated by a group of judges solicited from the PMSE Executive Committee during the PMSE/POLY Joint Poster Session held during the ACS National Meeting.

Award Announcement and Nature

Finalists are identified and awardees are selected before the conclusion of the poster session. Awards are given during ACS National Meetings at the PMSE and POLY evening reception.

Awardees will be notified during the show, and pictures are taken next to poster winners at the end of the session. Each awardee will each receive a $200 award. Awardees will be acknowledged at the PMSE/POLY Awards Ceremony at the National ACS Meeting.

Full List of Award Winners

2022 Fall Best Poster Award Winners

The American Chemical Society Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) is pleased to announce the winners of the PMSE Best Poster Awards presented at the Spring 2022 ACS National Meeting. Bios can be found here.

Hannah Dedmon, North Carolina State University

Antiplasticizing Interactions Between Biobased Small Molecules and Polyvinyl Alcohol: A Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study

Elina Ghimire, University of Chicago

Trainable Soft Materials Using Dynamic Liquid Crystal Elastomers

Jada Jackman, Drexel University

Interfacial Photopolymerization: Method for High Resolution Digital Processing of Recyclable Thermoplastics

Samuel Kopfinger, University of Chicago

Redox Active Particles with Stimuli Responsive Disulfide Crosslinks for Controlled Electrode Cleaning

Amberly Vu, Stanford University

Comparison of Ureteral Stent Biomaterials: Encrustation Profile in Metabolic and Infectious Artificial Urine Models

2022 Spring Best Poster Award Winners

Claire Dingwell, University of Minnesota
Regiospecific and linear poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol) via the ring-opening metathesis polymerization of 3-acetoxy cyclooctene
Robert Enright, University of Massachusetts
Self-wrinkling polymer films via initiated chemical vapor deposition
Hayden Houck, Western Washington University
Chemical and physical tailoring of guanidine-based covalent adaptable networks
Mara Kuenen, University of Virginia
Connecting molecular features of poly(beta-amino ester)s to their degradation and solution behavior to engineer functional materials with controlled lifetimes
Jasmine Lim, University of Southern Mississippi
Attaining infrared photodetection in devices with narrow bandgap conjugated polymers
Jaylene Martinez, University of Colorado
Bonding of membranes by viscous polymers: Infiltration kinetics and its impact on mechanical integrity of the bonded polymer/membrane structure
Kate McConnell, Western Washington University
Chemical and physical tailoring of guanidine-based covalent adaptable networks
Thivani Senathiraja, Iowa State University
Tuning the intermolecular interactions of sulfonated ionomer via salt in solvent systems

2021 Fall Best Poster Award Winners

Siyu Xiong, University College of London
Chitosan composed electrospun nanofibrous members for indoxyl surface sorption
Nicole Mandel, Columbia University
Rotation and translation of single molecular probes in polystyrene near the glass transition
Michelle Pomatto, Virginia Tech
Morphological control of poly(ether ketone ketone) as a means to tailor blocky functionalization in the gel state
Vinita Shinde Auburn University
Recent advances in microcapsule-based self-healing in high impact polystyrene (HIPS) composites
Cheyenne Liu, University of Southern Mississippi
Forcing single-chain nanoparticle collapse through hydrophobic solvent interactions in comb copolymers
Adam Weiss, University of Chicago
Using rotational polymer design to direct lysosomal rupture, inflammasome activation, and T-cell responsivity

2020 Fall Best Poster Award Winners

Michael Stolberg, MIT
Highly ordered ion conducting polymer electrolytes for decoupled ion transport
Dillan Stengel, San Diego State University
Water-induced beta-sheet crosslinking of alpha-helical-rich spider prey-wrapping silk
Kartik Kumar Rajagopalan and Xiuzhu Zhu, Texas A&M
Temperature-responsive, tunable poly(vinyl alcohol)-borax salogels for shape stabilization of an inorganic phase change materials

2020 Fall Best Poster Award Winners

The American Chemical Society Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) is pleased to announce the winners of the PMSE Best Poster Awards presented at the 2020 ACS National Meeting in San Francisco, CA. Congratulations to Whitney Loo, Chan Ho Park, and Isaac Shin as presenters for the best posters.

Polymer dynamics in block copolymer electrolytes detected by neutron spin echo
Whitney Loo ^¹, Antonio Faraone ²_, Nitash P Balsara ³

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University California Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States
MS 6100, National Institute of Standards Tech, Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States
Univ of California, Berkeley, California, United States

Modulating solution viscosity by controlling the polymer morphology in solution from intra- to intermolecular hydrogen bonding [PMSE 357]
Isaac Shin ¹, Myungeun Seo ^1 2 3

Graduate School of Nanoscience and Technology, KAIST, Daejeon, Korea (the Republic of)
Department of Chemistry, KAIST, Daejeon, Korea (the Republic of)
KAIST Institute for Nanocentury, KAIST, Daejeon, Korea (the Republic of)

Real-time photothermal sensing and therapy using block copolymer-grafted MoS₂nanocomposites
Chan Ho Park ¹

KAIST, Daejeon, Korea (the Republic of)

2019 Fall Best Poster Award Winners

The American Chemical Society Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) is pleased to announce the winners of the PMSE Best Poster Awards presented at the 2019 ACS National Meeting in San Diego, CA. Congratulations to Diego Luan Bertuzzi, Jessica Cashman, and Yun Liu as presenters for the best posters.

Synthesis and self-assembly of dendrimer-b-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) block copolymers containing folates for applications in biosensors and drug delivery systems [PMSE 306]
Diego Luan Bertuzzi,^1,2 Catia Ornelas,³ Bradley D Olsen²

Institute of Chemistry, University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil
Chemical Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Institute of Chemistry, University of Campinas – UNICAMP, Campinas SP, Brazil

Increased flexibility in polyimide aerogel substrates for conformal, lightweight antennas [PMSE 328]
Jessica Cashman,¹ Baochau N Nguyen,² Bushara Dosa,¹ Mary Ann Meador¹

NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Ohio Aerospace Institute, North Royalton, Ohio, United States

Lewis pair-mediated ring-opening polymerization of cyclic disulfides: Building high molar mass polymers with dynamic s–s bonds [PMSE 394]
Yun Liu, Yuan Jia, Qiong Wu, Jeffrey Scott Moore

Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology; Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States

2019 Spring Best Poster Award Winners

Increased Thermal Properties of Benzoxazine Polymers Cured with End-group Tosylated Polymers [PMSE 369]

Ayesha Nadeem¹, Emily A. Brown¹, David A. Rider²¹Department of Chemistry and ²Department of Engineering & Design, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA

Fabrication, Optimization, and Analysis of Graphene Oxides Doped Polyvinylidene Flouride Nanocomposite for Surface Acoustic Wave Sensor Application [PMSE 450]

Omari Paul¹, A. Thai¹, A. Joaquin¹, M. Ridley¹, S. Jones¹, C. Bufford¹, A. Falconer¹, A. Smith², A. Ueda³, R. Mu¹, F.R. Williams¹
¹ College of Engineering, Tennessee State University, Tennessee, United States
²Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, Crane, Indiana, United States
³Center for Chemistry and Physics of Materials, Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States

Dynamic Control of Hydrogel Crosslinking Through Reversible Sortase-meditated Transpeptidation [PMSE 500]

Matthew R. Arkenberg¹, Dustin M. Moore², Chien-Chi Lin^1,2

¹ Wheldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States
²Department of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue School of Engineering and Technology, Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States

2018 Fall Best Poster Award Winners

Vapor-printed polymers for flexible electronics
PMSE 557

Won Jun Jo¹, Vladimir Bulovic³, Karen Gleason²¹Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, United States
² Department of Chemical Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
³ Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

Role of chain-end association life time in segmental and chain dynamics of associating telechelic polymers
PMSE 501

Kunyue Xing¹, Martin Tress¹, Pengfei Cao², Fei Fan¹, Shiwang Cheng², Tomonori Saito², Alexei P. Sokolov^1,2¹ Department of Chemistry, The University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
²Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States

Polymerization induced order-order and disorder-order transitions in diblock copolymer-monomer blends
PMSE 459

Everett Zofchak^1,2, Robert Hickey², Jacob LaNasa², Wenwen Mei²¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, United States
²Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States

2018 Spring Best Poster Award Winners

Exploring “click” chemistry to synthesize and characterize cyclic polyethers
PMSE 366

Farihah Haque, Scott M. Grayson
Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

Synthesis, mechanical, and structural properties of piezoelectric polyvinylidene fluoride doped with barium titanate nanoparticles
PMSE 379

Akinwunmi Joaquim, Omari Paul, Robert Turner, Ranganathan Parthasarathy, Lizhi Ouyang, Yuri Barnakov, Frances Williams
Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States

Effect of phase separation on water barrier properties in epoxy/amine thermosetting polymers
PMSE 444

John Vergara², Ian Donahue², John J La Scala¹, Joshua M Sadler¹, Santosh Kumar Yadav², Giuseppe Palmese²¹Army Research Lab, RDECOM, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, United States;
²Chemical and Biological Engineering, Drexel University, Downingtown, Pennsylvania, United States

2017 Fall Best Poster Award Winners

Fluorinated non-planer precursors for enhanced structural arrangement in two-dimensional (2D) azine-linked covalent organic frameworks PMSE 342

Sampath B. Alahakoon, G.T. McCandless, A. Karunathilake, C. Thompson, R. Smaldone
University of Texas at Dallas, United States

Development of phosphate-presenting citrate-based polymer for orthopaedic applications PMSE 397

Qiyao Li, Jinshan Guo and Jian Yang
Pennsylvania State University, United States

Shrink-wrapped encapsulation of proteins and triggered traceless release through reactive self-assembly approach PMSE 465

Kingshuk Dutta, D. Hu, B. Zhao, A. Ribbe, J. Zhuang, S. Thayumanavan
University of Massachusetts Amherst, United States

2017 Spring Best Poster Award Winners

Structural Characterization of Three-Helix Micelle Delivery Platform for Neurological Disease Treatment PMSE 385

Benson Jung, Joo Cuan Ang, and Ting Xu
UC Berkeley, United States

Physical, thermal, electrochemical and fuel cell performance study of sulfonated poly(phenelyne)s /novel branched polysulfone-based polymer blends PMSE 419

Behrooz Motealleh, Timothy Largier, Fei Huang, and Chris Cornelius
University of Nebraska, United States

Micellar thrombin-binding aptamers as reversible nanoscale anticoagulants PMSE 515

Alexander Roloff, Andrea Carlini, and Nathan Gianneschi
UC San Diego, United States