IUPAC Polymer Conferences

1. We serve humankind by advancing chemistry worldwide.

2. We view scientific excellence and objectivity as the cornerstone of all our work.

3. We value collaboration and communication among all our stakeholders.

4. We strive for diversity and inclusiveness in all forms.

5. We respect each other and the Union.

6. We uphold the highest standards of transparent, responsible and ethical behaviour.

Building upon these principles, the Division’s aims are:

1. To facilitate international scientific exchange

2. To cooperate with other international organizations

3. To promote macromolecular and polymer science and technology at the international level, including education, conferences and the assessment of societal impact

4. To define terminology and standards in macromolecular and polymer science and technology.

The means by which the Division achieves these aims include:

1. Developing position papers on issues of importance to the international community

2. Organizing studies of polymer-related industrial technologies to define critical issues

3. Promoting scientific and technological education and exchange of ideas

4. Actively sponsoring international conferences

5. Providing financial support for approved projects in terminology, in polymer, molecular and process characterization, in special topics and in education.

It is the fourth of this last set of bullet points that is the focus of this article. As the only worldwide organization representing polymer science and technology, not just polymer chemistry, the Division’s engagement in organizing conferences is second to none. It endorses and, where it is appropriate to do so, it funds conferences of relevance to the future development and application of polymers for the benefit of the world community. It distributes knowledge about polymers, in particular to students from economically disadvantaged countries, through educational projects, tutorials and courses that it sponsors [3]. The IUPAC endorsement (misleadingly called ‘sponsorship’ in the past) is first and foremost a quality label, as direct financial support is only granted in two special cases: for conferences on New Directions in Chemistry for Divisions or Standing Committees that wish to support or organize a symposium or workshop on the “frontiers of science” within the framework of a Conference, or otherwise to support or organize conferences that are located in scientifically emerging regions.

Organizers of conferences who wish to apply to IUPAC for endorsement are required to supply relevant information one year in advance, sadly a practice more honored in its breach than its observance. As for any other IUPAC division, applications from the Polymer Division are coordinated and endorsed by the Division President thus involving the organizer in discussions of the conference program and objectives, and the identification of the proposed lecturers with the Division during preparation of the application, and, of course, there are prerequisites: (1) the conference has to be located in a country represented within IUPAC by a National Adhering Organization, and (2) in general, IUPAC endorsed conferences should be international in the sense that they are intended to attract participants from anywhere in the world. Conferences that are mainly regional in nature may, however, be eligible for endorsement if it would help attract a more international audience.

In Division IV, our conferences are not just occasions where scientific results are presented, they are scientific meeting places with vivid face-to-face discussions. They include social events that keep the community together, sometimes developing a family-like atmosphere within which students can establish international contacts; where groups with common interests can be identified with a view to collaboration and future exchanges; where young scientists can find post-doctoral positions or make contact with industry. Everyone presents their results in front of an international audience and get to meet distinguished scientists, even Nobel laureates—a rare opportunity. Our major conferences, the well-known IUPAC World Polymer Congress—MACRO (see below) and the POLYCHAR (POLYCHAR stands for Polymer Characterization) World Forum on Advanced Materials, grant particular awards for students or young scientists to attend. This is commonly coordinated through National Adhering Organizations, some of which supplement the funding available for this purpose. Usually, there is an IUPAC Poster Prize for Young Scientists at all our endorsed conferences. Presently, the routinely-endorsed Division IV conferences are:

1. International Symposium on Ionic Polymerization

2. International Symposium on Macromolecular-Metal Complexes (MMC)

3. International Conference on Polymer Characterization (POLYCHAR)

4. International Conference on Polymers and Organic Chemistry

5. UNESCO School & IUPAC Conference on Macromolecules (South Africa)

6. Novel Materials and their Synthesis (NMS) (China)

7. IUPAC World Polymer Congress (International Symposium on Macromolecules-MACRO)

Young scientists, as indicated above, were sponsored by IUPAC in such a way that some from underprivileged countries were able to attend courses, for example the Short Course on Polymer Characterization held in combination with POLYCHAR, by now the institutionalized and traditionally prestigious Postgraduate Course of the Macromolecular Institute in Prague, Czech Republic and, more recently, the tutorial on the occasion of MACRO 46 in Istanbul, Turkey, 2016. As well as receiving travel and subsistence expenses, the young scientists’ fees were also waived.

The IUPAC World Polymer Congresses (MACRO) held in even years are the flagship events of the Polymer Division, hosting about 1000 or more participants. Whatever notice the polymer community takes of the Division and its activities, this is the polymer conference that every country wishes to host and at which every polymer scientist makes an effort to be present. Under the banner of the IUPAC International Symposium on Macromolecules and aiming to be an annual conference, the first ‘MACRO’ was held in 1957 in Prague in the Czech Republic. In 1988, it became a biennial event. The various venues are shown in Table 1 and mapped on pages 28-29; the next in the series being due to be held in Cairns, Australia in 2018.

On the occasion of MACRO Paris 2004, the Polymer Division awarded the first of the prestigious Samsung-IUPAC Young Scientist Award (since 2014 renamed Hanwha-Total IUPAC Young Scientist Award) for “the most promising young polymer scientists from any country under the age of 40.” Since 2008, two other prizes, the Polymer International Award "for creativity in applied polymer science or polymer technology for a scientist under the age of 40,” and the DSM Performance Materials Award (that in 2014 was re-named the DSM Materials Science Award) “bestowed in recognition of outstanding scientific work of an established scientist who has significantly contributed to the advancement of the materials science field,” have also been awarded at MACRO conferences. In addition, in 2016 one of the plenary lectures was named “Robert Stepto Memorial Lecture” with the intention that it should be so called in perpetuity as a mark of the enormous contribution to the Division from its former president, Bob Stepto.

Above, Division President, Greg Russell, opens MACRO-2016 in Istanbul.

At right, Past-president Michael Buback presents the inaugural Robert Stepto Memorial Lecture.

There have been two important IUPAC Strategic Conferences on the Mission and Challenges of Polymer Science and Technology held in Kyoto, Japan in 2002, and in New York in 2005.

The full extent of Division IV’s involvement in conference organization, however, is best illustrated by the following list of our IUPAC endorsements covering three years of events from 2010 to 2012:

Geographical distributions of endorsed conferences; see text for full listings of year 2010 to 2012.

2010

1. 18th International Conference on Polymer Characterization; World Forum on Advanced Materials, Siegen, Germany, April 2010

2. 74^th Prague Meeting on Macromolecules. Contemporary Ways to Tailor-Made Polymers, Modern Methods of Polymer Synthesis, Prague, Czech Republic, July 2010

3. 8th International Conference on Polymer-Solvent Complexes and Intercalates Prof. Jean-Michel Guenet, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France, July 2010

4. 43rd International Symposium on Macromolecules—IUPAC World Polymer Congress (Macro 2010), Glasgow, UK, July 2010

5. MAM-10, 5^th International Symposium on Macro-and Supramolecular Architectures and Materials: New Science and Technologies for the Improvement of Human Living Standards, Montego Bay, Jamaica, August 2010

6. 4^th International Conference on Polymer Behaviour, Łodz, Poland, September 2010

7. 6^th Symposium on Novel Materials and their Synthesis, Wuhan, China, October 2010

8. 8^th Hellenic Society Symposium on Polymer Science and Technology, Hersonissos, Greece, October 2010

2011

1. 32^nd Australian Polymer Symposium, Coffs Harbour, Australia, February 2011

2. 19th International Conference on Polymer Characterization: World Forum on Advanced Materials, Katmandu, Nepal, March 2011

3. International Symposium on Materials Education, Pune, India, March 2011

4. 11th UNESCO/IUPAC Workshop and Conference on Functional Polymeric Materials and Composites, Stellenbosch, South Africa, April 2011

5. 2^nd Federation of Asian Polymer Societies Congress, Beijing, China, May 2011

6. 11^th Conference on Frontiers of Polymers and Advanced Materials, Pretoria, South Africa, May 2011

7. 7^th International Symposium on Molecular Mobility and Order in Polymer Systems, Saint Petersburg, Russia, June 2011

8. European Polymer Congress, Granada, Spain, June 2011

9. 75^th Prague Meeting on Macromolecules: Conducting Polymers, Prague, Czech Republic, June 2011

10. International Symposium on Ionic Polymerization, Akron, USA, July 2011

11. 14^th International Symposium on Macromolecular Complexes, Helsinki, Suomi, August 2011

12. 9^th International Conference on Advanced Polymers via Macromolecular Engineering, Cappadocia, Turkey, September 2011

13. 7th International Symposium on Novel Materials and their Synthesis, Shanghai, China, October 2011

2012

1. 14^th International IUPAC Conference on Polymers and Organic Chemistry, Doha, Qatar, January 2012

2. 20th International Conference on Polymer Characterization - World Forum on Advanced Materials, Dubrovnik, Croatia, March 2012

3. Kathmandu Symposium on Advanced Materials, Kathmandu, Nepal, May 2012

4. 44th International Symposium on Macromolecules—IUPAC World Polymer Congress , Blacksburg, Virginia, USA, June 2012

5. 76th Prague Meeting on Macromolecules: Polymers in Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic, July 2012

6. 9^th International Conference on Polymer-Solvent Complexes and Intercalates (PolySolvat 9), Kiev, Ukraine, September 2012

7. 4^th Federation of Asian Polymer Societies – International Polymer Congress, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 2012

8. 8th International Conference on Novel Materials and their Synthesis, Xian, China , October 2012

Although they do not embrace the same periods, Table 2 on page 31 representing the written output from our endorsed conferences and the ensuing selected statistics of geographical locations depicted in a series of pie charts gives an even fuller picture of the extent of the underlying effort in this area of the divisional activities.