Updates

• Featured Article:  Clint Cain, a distinguished K-9 officer of the Shreveport Police Department and trauma medic, was kind enough to prepare an article for the Texas A&M Student Chapter of SPE on the use of polymeric materials in law enforcement and medical applications.  The article is available at: http://plastics.tamu.edu/cain.
• February Seminar:  Prof. Melissa Grunlan, Texas A&M University Biomedical Engineering, will give a seminar on, “Polymers in Medicine."  The talk will be an overview about polymers in medicine, companies (particularly in Texas) involved in this research and a bit of her own research.  It will also include some reflections on her experience working in R&D for 4 years at a chemical company (HB Fuller, St Paul - MN).  Formal announcement and invitation to follow.  Research highlights from Prof. Grunlan.
• Polyolefins Coneference:  We have a total of 10 sponsored students attending the 2012 Polyolefins Conference in Houston, Texas, hosted by SPE South Texas.  Six of the students will give poster presentations, and 1 will give a podium presentations.  More on Polyolefins 2012.

Several deadlines for scholarships and awards are coming up (see full list at http://plastics.tamu.edu/awards):

• 2012-2013 PerkinElmer Award:  The PerkinElmer Instruments Company sponsors a 2-part award presented yearly by the Composites  Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers. It is open to undergraduate and  graduate students.  Abstract is due TODAY (1/27/2012).  Details at http://plastics.tamu.edu/perkinelmeraward.

• SPE Scholarship:  The PTC at Texas A&M is accepting applications for the SPE Scholarship - deadline for submissions is January 31, 2012.

• SPE Foundation Scholarships:  Numerous scholarships available to students who have demonstrated or expressed an interest in the plastics industry. Scholarship application deadline is February 15, 2012 (deadline for the Extrusion Division/Lew Erwin Memorial Scholarship is a few weeks later).

Friday, January 27, 2012; 4:10 p.m., 104 Jack E Brown

Rachel A. Segalman, Associate Professor, CHEN at UC Berkley

Abstract:  Control over structures on a molecular through nanoscopic lengthscales is vital to optimize polymeric devices for energy generation.   For example, while molecular structure affects the electronic properties of semiconducting polymers, the crystal and grain structure greatly affect bulk conductivity, and nanometer lengthscale is vital to charge separation and recombination in photovoltaic and light emitting devices.  Careful control over the organic/inorganic interface appears to play a vital role in thermoelectric effects.   Block copolymers have been the subject of intense interest for their ability to form intricate, predictable 10nm lengthscale patterns.    Unfortunately, this immense background of research has generally focused on classical, flexible polymer molecules.   Semiconducting polymers for photovoltaics and other applications are characterized by a rigid, liquid crystalline chain shape and transport properties which rely crucially on crystallinity, which adds complexity to the thermodynamics of self-assembly.   In this seminar, I will discuss our work to understand the effect of chain shape on polymer self-assembly and routes to control both self-assembly and crystallization on multiple dimensions, as is required for these applications.   The effect of carefully controlled morphology on photovoltaic device performance as well as possible applications in thermoelectrics will be discussed.

Clint Cain, a distinguished K-9 officer of the Shreveport Police Department and trauma medic, was kind enough to prepare an article for the Texas A&M Student Chapter of SPE on the use of polymeric materials in law enforcement and medical applications.  The article not only gives us insight into the ways that polymers have contributed to the mission of police officers and soldiers around the world, but provides perspective into how our research and interests in polymers may be applied to real-life applications. 

Click here to read the article.

A webinar on manufacturing of agarose-based chromatographic adsorbents is offers by SPE has been announced by SPE for January 26 at 11AM Eastern.  Agarose is a macroporous hydrophilic biopolymer of commercial significance. Upon geometric refinement by emulsification means to beaded form it can be used in packed beds as an adsorbent for the purification of high value/small volume biopharmaceuticals. For a given biomolecule to be purified, the efficiency of the separation is directly related to both the macroscopic and microscopic properties of the adsorbent. The microscopic structure of beaded agarose is typically controlled by changing the concentration of agarose in the gel. This type of structural control presents two issues: First, a limited number of structures can be manufactured in this way and second, when wide structures are required, this is at the expense of mechanical strength. In addition, considerable uncertainty exists with regards to the impact of processing conditions on the final microstructure of the product. In this work, the effect of two processing conditions, ionic strength of the agarose solution and cooling conditions of the emulsion, on the pore size/pore size distribution and mechanical strength of agarose beads is examined. The techniques used to characterize the structure of the particles include AFM, cryo-SEM and a micromanipulation technique enabling the compression of single micron-sized particles.  The speaker is Dr. Nicolas Ionnidis from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.  More information.

A 1-hr live SPE webinar with be held on January 25 at 11AM Eastern.  Common problems encountered in the cut-sheet thermoforming process include thin spots, webbing, poor part definition, and plug/pusher mark-off. Syntactic foam can be used in various ways with both positive and negative tooling to alleviate these issues. Syntactic plugs result in improved material distribution, leading to opportunities for down-gauging. Compared with other common plug/pusher materials such as wood and felt-covered wood, syntactic foam results in minimal plug mark-off and improved plug durability. This presentation covers the diverse uses of syntactic foam, along with two case studies and information on how to prepare/process this material.  More information.

This is a final notice on getting a sponsorship from SPE to attend the Polyolefins 2012 conference in Houston, TX on February 26 -29, 2012.  We currently have 11 students who have shown interest and all 5 full sponsorships have been reserved.  However, if you are interested in submitting a poster, you can still get free room and board for Sunday and Monday, and registration until Tuesday.  I am submitting the contact information for the student to SPE tonight, so you must notify me today with your poster title.  My e-mail is kevinwhite09@gmail.com.

For more details on the event itself, you can go directly to the SPE South Texas link here.  The conference schedule is available here.

The theme for the Polyolefins 2012 Conference is, "Global Advancements in Plastics Engineering."  Some press on the plenary session presentations has just been released by SPE South Texas.

Robert Eller of Robert Eller Associates, LLC: "Current and future potential of polyolefins, TPO, and TPV in the automotive sector."

Globalization, sharp increases in CAFE requirements, a shift in vehicle demand mix toward smaller/less profitable vehicles, supply chain evolution, and sharp increases in the value of weight savings will affect automotive polyolefin demand. This paper will review how these forces are driving material substitution in the global automotive sector and how they favor and restrain the potential roles of polyolefin resins, engineered polyolefin compounds, TPOs and TPVs. Opportunities presented by recent and projected advances in materials will be identified. Examples of inter-material competition, fabrication technology advances, and substitution economics for key target applications—such as instrument panels, bumper fascia, exterior panels, body/glazing seals, interior trim, and semi-structural applications—will be presented for several fabrication technology/material combinations.

Dr. Chatterjee, our regional advisor for SPE and a Technical Manager at Ingenia Polymers Group (Houston, TX), has just notified us that they looking for undergraduate (preferably junior or senior) or graduate students in Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, and Chemistry Departments for a R&D laboratory internship position.  The internship will last from mid-May to mid-August 2012, and will involve polymer processing in the lab with various additives, and characterization of the polymer blends using various methods.  If you are interested in this position, e-mail resume to Dr. Ananda Chatterjee at achatterjee@ingeniapolymers.com.

The SPE Foundation offers numerous scholarships to students who have demonstrated or expressed an interest in the plastics industry.  Scholarship application deadline is February 15, 2012 (although the deadline for the Extrusion Division/Lew Erwin Memorial Scholarship is a few weeks later).  Applicants must be full-time undergraduate or graduate students, demonstrate or express an interest in the plastics industry, be majoring in or taking courses which are beneficial to a career in the polymer industry, and be in good academic standing.  Financial need of applicants will be considered for most scholarships.  Read more.

The PerkinElmer Instruments Company sponsors a 2-part award presented yearly by the Composites  Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers. It is open to undergraduate and  graduate students. At the time of application, master’s students must be in the  first year of their program, and doctoral students must be in the first two  years of their program.  Read more.

Update from Dr. Robert Portney of SPE South Texas:  Due to inclement weather in Houston today and imminent flash flooding the South Texas Section meeting tonight has been postponed until next Monday, January 16.  All other details for the meeting remain the same.  We will honor your original registration for the postponed meeting now scheduled for Monday, January 16.  If you cannot attend on the new date, please reply to me as soon as possible.  Everyone that we do not hear from to cancel will be assumed to want to attend and will be charged for the meal (if it was reserved originally).

Howdy!  This has been a great year to part of the Texas A&M University Society of Plastics Engineers (TAMU SPE).  We enjoyed a set of wonderful seminar speakers, toured the BASF polyurethanes plant with the South Texas SPE Chapter, and participated in the ACS-sponsored Chemistry Open House.  It is pretty interesting to reflect and note the opportunity that we have bringing together such a diverse set of skills in this organization, and to ponder how we can best utilize our resources in the upcoming semester.  Organizations like SPE are critical in maximizing our experience at Texas A&M.  Read more.

SPE South Texas will be providing 5 students from each university full conference registration, room, and meals.  Any additional students wil get a reduced fee, but we may be able to help out.  Anyone interested in participating needs to send me an e-mail immediately to secure your spot.  The deadline to submit the student's names is January 14th.  Please let me know if you will be giving an oral presentation or poster presentation in the e-mail.  My e-mail address is whitek@neo.tamu.edu.

The AAAS Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellows Program has been announced, with application deadline of January 15.  The program seeks to increase communication skills in student scientists as they not only become more adept at describing scientific concepts to the journalism community, but also better equipped to engage the public about the impact of their work. The fellowship places 10 to 15 senior undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate science and engineering students at media sites nationwide to work as summer science reporters for 10 weeks. Past sites have included the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and NPR.

An eligible applicant's field of study must be in the natural, physical, health, engineering, computer, or social sciences, or mathematics. The fellowship includes a $4,500 stipend, plus travel expenses. For an application and more information, visit http://www.aaas.org/programs/education/MassMedia/.

Please note the call for nominations for the JPS Innovation Award, which is found on the PMSE website:  http://pmse.sites.acs.org/.  The Journal of Polymer Science is proud to announce its new international award, which recognizes significant research innovation and achievement in a polymer scientist under 40. The award consists of a symposium in association with the Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) Division of the ACS, as well as a reception and dinner in recognition of the recipient at the ACS Fall meeting, a $5000 prize, and travel expenses to the ACS Fall meeting for the award year. Nominations for the prize should consist of a one-page document from the nominator in support of the nominee, explaining why the innovative nature of their research deserves recognition, and an up-to-date CV from the nominee.  Please send nominations to jpschem@wiley.com or jpsphys@wiley.com before January 18th, 2012.

Howdy and happy New Year from the Texas A&M Chapter of the Society of Plastics Engineer. The TAMU SPE newsletter provides details from the last semester’s seminars, our chapter events, and upcoming activities.  An online version can be found here.

The November/December 2011 SPE-Plastics Engineering Digital Edition is now on line. The Digital edition has been sponsored by Dow Chemical Company and is available at this link: Plastics Engineering eBooks | November 2011.  This update was provided by Roland Espinosa: National Advertising Representative of the SPE Plastics Engineering Magazine at John Wiley & Sons.  Courtesy of the SPE South Texas Section.  Free LinkedIn account required for access.

We have opened a new education section containing short articles and reports by our SPE members.  This section is meant to provide information about new and exciting fields of research which are of interest to the polymer community, and enable our active members to promote their findings in a public forum.  Anyone interested in contributing can send an e-mail to spe@plastics.tamu.edu.  The first topic is polymer nanocomposites, with a focus on nanomaterials, and is available here: http://plastics.tamu.edu/education/nanocomposites.

The PTC at Texas A&M is now accepting applications for the SPE Scholarship. The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2012. More information can be found on our Education page.  Click here to view the application. Fill out the application and return it to Isabel Cantu in Room 228A of the Engineering/Physics Building. The deadline to submit the scholarship application is January 31, 2012.

Source:  PTC

Dr. Cris Schwartz, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University and advisor to the Texas A&M Chapter of SPE, has received the prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Schwartz received his CAREER award for his proposal, “Using Haptically Augmented Tactile Communication Methods to Foster the Inclusion of the Visually Impaired in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Professions.”  Read more.

We have confirmed the details for the November Seminar: Dr. Kishori Desphande will be presenting on Monday, 11/7 at 6:00 PM in ENPH Room 205 (classroom wing).  As always, there will be free pizza.  More details on the presentation can be found here.  The publicity flyer is attached.

The PTIC Student Poster Session was last week - thanks to all the students who helped set up and take down the event, the industrial members that participated and exchanged ideas with the students, the faculty who gave presentations on their research (Prof. Sue, Prof. Cagin, Prof. Bergbreiter, Prof. Schneider, Prof. Muliana, and Prof. Schwartz), and the staff that actually did the work to bring it all together (especially Isabel Cantu and Garrett Nowak).  Two SPE members were among the winners from the competition:  SPE President Kevin White won 1st place and Biomedical Engineering Representative Melissa Hawkins won 3rd place.  Congratulations to Philip Imbesi of the Chemistry Department for winning 2nd place.  We will post some pictures of the event shortly.

The final seminar of the semester will be on November 7 at 6:00 PM in ENPH 206 (confirmation on room number to follow).  Dr. Kishori Deshpande from Dow Chemical will give a presentation.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Chemistry Open House yesterday.  It was a great event and everyone had a lot of fun.  If anyone took pictures, please send them to our webmaster, Tiffany Pinder (tpinder@mail.chem.tamu.edu) to post on the website.

A few other updates:

1. The PTIC meeting is this week.  We need to have a speaker to present a short talk about their research (15 minutes).  I presented last year, so it would be great if someone from one of the other research groups would give a short talk.  It can be on any topic, but should be relatively general because the audience will be mostly industry professionals.  This is a great opportunity for exposure if you are about to graduate!  If you are interested, contact me ASAP (whitek@neo.tamu.edu).

2. The PTIC poster session is THIS WEEK -- Thursday night, 10/27/2011.  More details are on the website (http://plastics.tamu.edu/events/2011-02-poster).  If you are interested in presenting, send a message to Isabel Cantu (icantu@tamu.edu) as soon as possible with your abstract title.

3. The speaker for the November seminar (Dr. Kishori Deshpande) has sent in an abstract and confirmed for 11/7.  We will send out a more formal invitation a week before the presentation.

4. I have put up a member page (http://plastics.tamu.edu/kevinwhite) and on-line resume (http://plastics.tamu.edu/kevinwhite-cv) for myself as a model for everyone.  Anyone else interested simply needs to write up a few sections on bio, personal info, research interests, etc, and send them to Tiffany (tpinder@mail.chem.tamu.edu) in an e-mail.  The website is very easy to use and takes only a few minutes to put together.  If you have received an account (you would have received an e-mail), then you can click "Add page" under content and add your own page yourself.  If you haven't received one, send me a note and I'll create one for you.

Dr. Kishori Deshpande of Dow Chemical has confirmed that she will give a talk on November 7.  We will send out a formal announcement shortly before the seminar.  The talk will be be on "Achieving Sustainability through Process Intensification: An industrial perspective."

Read more.

The Chemistry Open House is this weekend -- Saturday, October 22.  If anyone is available Saturday for a few hours please volunteer. The event is a lot of fun. We will be looking at ultra-absorptive hydrogels found in common applications.  This is a great way to reach out to the community and to interact with kids and get them interested in science.  Please sign up for at least 1.5 hours.  If you are interested, please email me (Kevin White at whitek@tamu.edu) to let me know you can volunteer and the times you are available.  We need people throughout the day. The event is from 9:30 to 3:30.  Read more.

The tour of the BASF Polyurethanes plant yesterday was a great success.  I wanted to take a moment and thank everyone within the Texas A&M student chapter that participated, and extend a huge amount of gratitude to the South Texas SPE chapter for inviting us.  It was great getting to meet and talk with members of the industry and we are indebted for the experience.  Everyone within the Texas A&M group was very excited about not only gaining new appreciation of polyurethane technology, but also getting to interact with industry leaders and network.  From the Texas A&M student chapter, we want to express our deep appreciation and encourage your organization to continue to include us with future events.  Special thanks to Suzanne Diecks for organizing the event.  Read more.