This award is no longer active

The POLY Graduate Student Video Award was established in 2014 to prepare young chemists to present their research in a short video/movie format and interact with a broad range of audiences, including more senior scientists and the general public.

Award: Awards will  be announced at the POLY/PMSE awards symposium Wednesday of the fall national ACS meeting and awardees will receive $250. The award shall be granted to an individual without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, or sexual orientation.

Eligibility: Applicants must be a current PhD student and must be a POLY member. A student does not need to attend the national meeting of the ACS to be eligible.

Application: An application includes a video (up to 3 minutes long) describing the applicant’s research to a non-technical audience.  Videos must be uploaded to Youtube and a link submitted with the application. Videos will be judged by the POLY awards committee and feedback sent to students in written or oral form. All videos judged of “good” quality or better will be posted on the POLY Youtube channel. Three finalists will be identified and encouraged to attend the POLY Awards reception (Wednesday evening of national ACS meeting), where the videos will be shown and the winner announced.

Nomination packages should be sent by email to the POLY division business office at kathyl@vt.edu and should include (in order):

• One page cover letter from the applicant that briefly describes the importance of conveying the research to a general audience
• A letter of support from the applicant’s advisor stating his/her agreement that the video can be published online and shown at ACS-sponsored meetings, including POLY workshops and local, regional, and national meetings of the ACS

Previous Awardees