Winter 2018 Newsletter

March Meeting in Los Angeles, March 4 - 9

We are looking forward to seeing you in Los Angeles.

Short Course: the GENE experience, March 3 - 4
Costantino Creton (costantino.creton@espci.fr) and Bradley Olsen (bdolsen@mit.edu) organized this year’s course: “The Gel, Elastomer, and Network Experience (GENE).”
The DPOLY short course on polymer networks, i.e. gels and elastomers, will provide students with a comprehensive introduction to the fundamental science of these ubiquitous materials as well as an introduction to emerging topics that will rapidly advance their knowledge towards the front of the field.

Receptions
Two receptions for DPOLY members are happening this year. In addition to the reception Sunday evening, the RSC’s journal Soft Matter is hosting a reception Tuesday evening for DPOLY and GSOFT members.

  • DPOLY, Sunday, March 4, 6 - 9 pm.
    Please enjoy the DPOLY reception, which celebrates our award winners: Juan dePablo (Polymer Physics Prize) and Bradley Olsen (Dillon Medal). The reception will be at the Karl-Strauss Brewing Company, 600 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90017. See you there.
  • Soft Matter, Tuesday, March 6, 6:45 - 8 pm.
    Enjoy the hospitality of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Soft Matter journal after our business meeting. The reception will be at the Platinum E Ballroom in the J.W. Marriott, 900 West Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90015.

The Meeting Program
Thanks to the program committee (chaired by Ryan Hayward) and to all DPOLY members for a full program, with 10 invited sessions and many focus sessions, including symposia honoring William Graessley (sessions A56 and B56) and Ryong-Joon Roe (session E56). Thanks to all session organizers.

The DPOLY program booklet has been mailed and is also available online.

DPOLY members from overseas may pick up their hard copy booklets at the membership table.

The APS program and scheduler are at the meeting website.

Award Symposia. Several Award symposia are included in the program.

  • Polymer Physics Prize, Juan dePablo, “The interplay between elasticity, defect structure, and motion in active nematic polymers”, Tuesday, March 6, 8am – 8:36am (Session E59), Petree Hall D.
  • Frank J. Padden Award Symposium, Tuesday, March 6, 11:15am – 1:39pm (Session F55), Room 515A; the winner will be announced at the Business Meeting.
  • Dillon Medal, Bradley Olsen, “Skipping Polymer Physics”, Tuesday, March 6, 2:30pm – 3:06pm (Session H59), Petree Hall D.

Business Meeting, Tuesday, 5:45 pm, Room 515A.
Please email Sanat Kumar (sk2794@columbia.edu) if you have items for our agenda. Thanks.

NSF Q&A Session and Decadal Workshop Summary, Tuesday, 6:45 pm, Room 515A.

Poster Session, 140 posters, Wednesday, 11:15 am - 2:15 pm, West Hall A.

Membership

DPOLY membership has grown slowly over the past three years and we are grateful for the efforts of the membership committee (chaired by Chinedum Osuji), including various mailings and, as noted below, a new website. New members continue to join. Yearly data is posted on the APS website. Your participation supports quality meetings and vibrant community. Your ideas are welcome. Please help assemble timely meeting programs, or work to help DPOLY be of value to members at all stages of their career. Efforts to engage increasingly with industrial and international members are encouraged.

DPOLY Membership Table, Monday - Wednesday.
Please volunteer (signup here) or contact Chinedum Osuji, chinedum.osuji@yale.edu) for a time slot at the membership table. Volunteers will sign up new DPOLY members and distribute program booklets to new and international members. Thanks!

New Member-driven Website Launched

Chinedum Osuji (chair of the membership committee) launched a new website. The site was developed as a resource for polymer science, soft matter, and related communities, by DPOLY members. One of the principal aims of the site is to improve the efficiency with which candidates in our field find positions, and vice-versa. We hope that you find it to be of great service. Create a login to use all its features. Check it out!

Frischknecht and Nakatani Elected

Amalie Frischknecht was elected the new Vice Chair and Alan Nakatani was elected the new Member at Large of the Executive Committee. We look forward to their service to the division. We also thank Jack Douglas and Azar Alizadeh for standing for election. (21% of DPOLY membership voted.)

Please contact Amalie (alfrisc@sandia.gov) with your suggestion for the next short course.

Building the DPOLY Program for 2019

David Simmons (dsimmon@uakron.edu) will chair the Program Committee.
Amalie Frischknecht (alfrisc@sandia.gov) will recruit a short course organizer.
Please join the process in building the next meeting.

New Fellows

DPOLY welcomes the following new fellows:

  • Thomas Epps lll (University of Delaware): For groundbreaking research examining the effects of block polymer interfacial energetics on the nanoscale self-assembly of macromolecules in bulk, thin film, and solution systems.
  • Raffaele Mezzenga (ETH - Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich): For outstanding contributions to the understanding and control of original self-assembly principles of complex materials with targeted functionalities.
  • Ras Pandey (University of Southern Mississippi): For insightful applications of the bond-fluctuation multi-grain method to the physics of polymer nanocomposites and biopolymers.
  • Christopher Stafford (National Institute of Standards and Technology): For developing innovative techniques to enhance physical understanding of polymer thin films, including combinatorial arrays with controlled gradients, buckling methods to quantify modulus, and the layer-by-layer synthetic method to enhance structure-property relations polymer transport membranes.
  • Francis Starr (Wesleyan University): For simulations studies elucidating fundamental aspects of glass formation in bulk, nanocomposite, and ultra-thin film polymer materials; the dynamics of lipid membranes; nanoparticle association in polymer matrices; and the assembly of DNA-grafted nanoparticles into lattice structures in solution.

Now Accepting Nominations, Due by Friday June 1, 2018

Please nominate outstanding candidates for the Polymer Physics Prize, the Dillon Medal and for Fellowship. Nominations are submitted online. For any nominations still active that you have submitted in previous years, please update your nomination through the same web interface. Consult the following pages and links therein for each:

Polymer Physics Prize
Dillon Medal
APS Fellowship

These links are all available through DPOLY's APS website under Prizes and Awards and APS Fellowship.

You can see former prize and award winners there. To find out if a member is already a fellow, you can consult the APS directory.

Other Meetings

The Polymer Physics Gordon Conference will be held this summer, July 22-27, concerning “New Developments in Hierarchical Structure and Dynamics of Polymers.” The chair of this conference is Amalie Frischknecht (alfrisc@sandia.gov). The corresponding student/postdoc seminar GRS “Connecting Fundamentals to Broad Applications in Polymer Physics” will be held July 21-22, chaired by Michael Thees and Danielle Mai. Please note that registration scholarships to the GRS are available for 1 grad student or postdoc per research group. Requests for such support are due on April 21, 2018 by email to Michael Thees (mthees@emory.edu) and Danielle Mai (djmai@mit.edu). Contact info is at the conference/seminar websites.

This DPOLY newsletter was edited by Steve Hudson, DPOLY Secretary-Treasurer.