If you are interested in organizing a symposium at a future national meeting of the ACS, please click here.
____________________________________________________________________________
The following note addresses National Meeting Challenges and Changes provided by POLY Chair: Michael Meador
As you might have heard, ACS is planning an experiment for the Fall 2021 National Meeting, eliminating all Thursday programming. ACS will evaluate the success of this experiment and may decide that future National Meetings will end on Wednesday. The loss of one day of programming will significantly reduce the number of oral slots and will require Technical Divisions to maximize the use of both oral and poster presentations. POLY has a long and rich tradition of developing high quality, ground-breaking, and impactful programming at National Meetings and is committed to continuing this tradition. The POLY Executive Committee has discussed the potential impact of this change on programming. We also discussed proactive approaches for addressing these challenges to ensure that POLY National Meeting Programming meets the needs of our members, by providing meaningful opportunities to enhance their careers. This includes presenting their research and learning the latest developments in traditional and emerging areas of polymer chemistry. Based upon these discussions, the following changes are recommended for the Fall 2021 ACS National Meeting:
• All oral sessions for symposia will be limited to a maximum of 2 full days. The number of rooms that POLY has assigned to us will be reduced putting further constraints on oral programming. In order to maintain a diverse portfolio of symposia that meet the needs of meeting participants, we will need to limit the duration of each symposium to no more than two full days. The number of poster presentations will not be limited and symposium organizers are encouraged to develop a robust program that maximizes their use.
• Speakers are encouraged to accept no more than two invitations from POLY organized symposia at any given National Meeting. In order to maximize the opportunities for oral presentations as well as the diversity of
our presenters, we are asking all POLY speakers to limit their participation in oral sessions to no more than two presentations.
• A POLY Task Force has been established to identify innovative approaches for poster sessions. Currently poster participation in POLY symposia is well below that of other large ACS Technical Divisions. It is clear that this participation will need to be increased to provide our members with the most opportunities to present their research. Many meeting participants feel that a poster presentation is less desirable and prestigious than an oral presentation and addressing this attitude will require some novel and creative approaches. This Task Force will focus on new ways to make posters a more attractive medium for meeting participants to present their work and will identify approaches to increase attendance at POLY poster sessions.
The changes that are outlined above may not be popular with all National Meeting presenters, but the POLY Executive Committee feels that they are necessary to address thechallenges we will face with future meetings. Thank you in advance for your cooperation and understanding as we continue to work through this. As always, I welcome your thoughts and
suggestions. Please feel free to send me an e-mail at michael-meador@sbcglobal.net.
If you are interested in organizing a symposium at a future national meeting of the ACS, please click here.
Next Meeting
San Antonio, TX
March 21 – 25, 2021
Theme: Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century
PROGRAM CHAIRS: Hayley Brown (hbrown1@dow.com) and Robert Mathers (rtm11@psu.edu)
(tentative proposed symposia shown below)
- 50 Years of Polymer Science & Engineering at Southern Miss
- ACS NASA – Polymer Advanced Materials & System for Humanity Next Giant Leap
- Celebrating Inclusivity in Polymer & Materials Science
- Celebrating Underrepresented Groups in Polymer Science
- Engineering Functionality into Bio Polymers
- Paul Flory Education Award Symposium (Matyjaszewski)
- From Staudinger Macromolecules to the Genome of Macro
- Frontiers in Conjugated Polymer Design & Synthesis
- Industrial Innovations in Polymer Science
- Macromolecular Science at the Dawn of its Second Century
- The Role of ASTM International in Poly Testing and Analysis
- The Joseph C. Salamone Symposium – Revolutionary Innovation
- Polymer Symposium Honoring Frederich Stanley – KIPPING AWARD
- General Topics: New Synthesis & Characterization of Polymers
- Industrial Developments in polyolefin macromolecular design
For symposia organizers and chairs:
Guidelines for symposia organizers and chairs (pdf document)
Next Upcoming Meetings
**Currently accepting proposals for symposia (see the link at the top of this page)**
Atlanta, GA
August 22-26, 2021
San Diego, CA
March 20-24, 2022
Chicago, IL
August 21-25, 2022