Satej took home the Judges’ Vote Award for his pitch on a startup company producing recyclable thermosets!

Congrats to our three group members who were recognized by the UA LIFE Awards!  These awards are given to students who work to advance UA’s Legacy, Integrity, Fellowship, and Excellence.

Yuliana Ospina Yepes received the Graduate Excellence and Leadership Award

Megan Mitchell took home the 50 hour service challenge and A-Key Gold Award

Delora Grace Allen was recognized with the A-Key Gold Award.

Satej presented his work on CO2-based vitrimers at the annual Covestro poster session and was selected as one of the top presenters.  Way to go Satej and all the other PhD students who presented their work.  Special thanks to the generous support of Covestro in sponsoring premier polymer education and research here at Akron!

Our undergraduate honors colloquium “Sustainable Plastics” and PhD researchers had the chance to tour the new state-of-the-art WasteManagement facility in Akron that automates sorting of the region’s recycling bins.  Thanks to them for opening their doors and the Ohio EPA for supporting the region’s recycling infrastructure!

Our undergraduate Megan presents her exciting findings on high strength polymers at the College of Arts and Science’s poster session, a perfect finale before moving on to graduate school!

A small meet-up at ACS New Orleans with alumni and current students.  Congrats to Arsalaan for taking home 3rd place in the POLY-division Sci-Mix poster session!

The ESW team makes a showing at the ACCESS STEM event, engaging with our youth and public school about STEM careers.  Learn more at www.acessinc.org and special thanks to our supporters at the Synthomer Foundation!

Happy birthday to our newest group member Sruthi!

Arsalaan presented an oral seminar on polyolefin elastomers for biomedical applications and won 3rd prize in the poster session!

Happy birthday wishes to Yuliana and Jonah!

Arlo Claus brings presents to the group for our annual gift exchange.  Complete with end of the year Karaoke!

The student organization put on the absolute best holiday party this year!  Complete with a talent show… where Satej appears to be serenading Prof. Miyoshi and Chatanya.

Yuliana, Brennan, and Arsalaan represent the group at SPE-VinylTec this year in Akron.

The student organization of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering hosted a costume contest halloween party this year.  First prize went to The Grim Reaper “Polymer Physics”.  Even Wallace Carothers made an appearance!

After completing NSF I-Corps Keaton’s business pitch on sustainable composites takes home the big check!

Special congratulations to Nehemiah Hughes, Kaiden Mauck, and Darelle Thornton on their excellent summer research on the chemistry of materials.  Thanks to the Synthomer Foundation and the American Chemical Society Project SEED program for their financial support of these talented individuals!

Satej representing the group at ACS this fall with an oral presentation on his CO2-based vitrimers.

Megan Mitchell completed her summer research on degradable thermosets! She was selected for giving an oral presentation at the symposium and will continue the work as part of her honors thesis.

Derek successfully defended his thesis today marking the first PhD from the lab. Followed by a group “Escape Room”… is there a metaphor in that? Congrats Derek!

Yuliana’s poster on synthetic polymer heart valve materials wins first place at the UA Graduate School Research Symposium!

ACS Indianapolis trip was excellent. Great job to all our student presenters, with a special shoutout to Keaton receiving 1st place in the polymer division Sci-Mix poster session!

Read about Keaton’s research on heterogeneous nickel catalysts that produce amorphous polyethylenes here

Special thanks to Goodyear Rubber Company for financially supporting Keaton’s scientific journey!

Nothing screams “happy holidays” like hurling some polyurethane at wooden pins!

Chris Kim presented his summer research as part of the NSF’s REU program and was selected for an oral presentation!

Our undergraduate recycling group ZPP yields a great haul of HDPE bottle caps from local public schools.  Time to compression mold some key chains!

The tradition of Groundhog’s Day trivia and games continues this year… along with the tradition of Walter collapsing the tower!

Terrific presentations from our high school visiting scholar Amelia on cleaning up our PET recycling streams, and all the other St. Vincent/St. Mary’s researchers!

Congrats to Gavan, Leyao, and Sayan for publishing their research that won 1st place at the recent Tire Society meeting.  You can read more about their investigations into recycled PET fibers here!

Special thanks to our NSF Center for Tire Research (CenTiRe) industrial mentors for financially sponsoring their work.