Editors:
Edited by M. Hess
WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH, 2007
>
Content
doi:10.1002/masy.200790246
Preface
Polychar,
the World Forum for Advanced Materials, focused in 2007
on Polymer Science on the South American continent. POLYCHAR
15 had it home this year in Buzios, Brazil. It is
quite natural that a majority of participants are always
from the geographical neighbourhood. That is one reason
why POLYCHAR travels around the world since the year 2004.
All the time before its home was traditionally the University
of North Texas, Denton, Texas. Although UNT was always
an excellent host - as Texans use to be - and a good place
to meet, the advantage of meeting each year on a different
continent makes it easier for all to come to the meeting;
at least once in a few years it is nearby. The philosophy
that made this IUPAC-sponsored annual conference so successful
over the years is to provide scientist - in particular
young scientists, graduate students and newcomers in Polymer
Science - with a forum where they can meet, present their
results and discuss with experienced scientists from academia
and industry. Originally focused on the characterization
of polymeric systems, the conference has widened its scope
to advanced materials, still a domain of Polymer Science.
The
meeting in Buzios has attracted about 180 participants
from 21 countries, many of them from South America, proudly
presenting the quality of their science, but also from
far-away countries such as Lithuania, South Korea, India,
Israel or South Africa. For some participants POLYCHAR
offers the rare occasion to meet friends, exchange results
and to start new cooperations. For students and young
scientists it has turned out that POLYCHAR is a splendid
stock market for cooperations, to find post-graduate positions
or create other contacts. The coffee breaks and the "inofficial
sessions" in the evening are most effective events,
and many good projects came into being on a paper napkin
in a pub.
The
Conference was perfectly organized by the Instituto de
Macromoleculas Professora Eloý´sa Mano, Universidade
Federal do Rio de Janeiro (IMA/UFRJ). The organizing committee
was led by Prof. Elizabete Fernandes Lucas - IMA/UFRJ.
This conference volume represents only a small fraction
of the multitude of contributions from different parts
of materials science - 57 oral contributions and 160 posters.
Many of the contributions have review character, some
represent excellent original contributions. Only a small
number could be selected for this volume because of the
limited space that is available. All this was possible
with the sponsorship of IUPAC. A highlight of the conference
finally was the Paul J. Flory Research Award (ex aequo)
to Prof. Eloisa Mano, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil and Prof. Jean-Marc Saiter, Universite de Rouen,
Rouen, France, and the International Materials Research
Award to Prof. Dusan Berek, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Bratislava, Slovakia, and numerous awards for young scientists
and students, including the IUPAC Poster Award.
The
next POLYCHAR will be hosted by Prof. R. P. Singh, the
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lucknow, Lucknow
(Uttar Pradesh), India, in 2008, and in many laboratories
all over the world scientists are eagerly working on their
next contributions.
Michael
Hess