For the second time in its 31-year old history, the ISPAC Governing Board decided to support extraordinary graduate students and postdoctoral fellows with a ‘ISPAC Student Travel Award’ to make it possible to attend the annual International Symposium on Polymer Analysis and Characterization. It was decided to give out 6 awards worth a free registration for ISPAC 2018 and a cash price of 500 USD as a support for the travel costs. The organizers of ISPAC 2018 are proud to report that the announcement of the travel award was very well received and students/postdoctoral fellows from 6 different countries applied. A review panel of established international academics assessed all applications and presented their votes. The international panel highlighted the excellent quality of all applications which made it quite challenging to select the five best applications.

It is a pleasure and privilege for the panel and the conference chairmen to thank all applicants for their fine work and to congratulate them for their achievements. They are happy to announce the 2018 recipients of the ISPAC Student Travel Award:

Gagandeep Kaur – Texas A&M University, USA

"Selective Cell Adhesion on Peptide-Polymer Nano-Fiber Mats"
 

Jan-Hendrik Arndt – Fraunhofer Institute, Germany

"Asymmetric flow field flow fractionation – a novel approach for routine analysis of polyolefins"
 

Vidya Narasimhan – Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

"One-pot synthesis and characterization of “designer” delivery systems for controlled release of therapeutic agents"
 

Yan Liu – University of Twente, The Netherlands

"Functional electrospun membranes featuring grafted polymer brushes: The characterization challenge"
 

Ashna Rajeev – Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India
"Influencing liquid crystalline gel formation in cellulose ionic liquid solutions by adding water and nanoparticles"

Jessica Desport – LIST: Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Luxembourg
"Valorisation of multi-dimensional analytical approaches to unlock complex products characterization. The particular case of apolar commercial synthetic polymers"

Congratulations on behalf of the review panel, the ISPAC Governing Board, the conference chairs, Ron Jones, Kathryn Beers, Willem deGroot and the Organizing Committee. A big ‘Thank you’ also to those that did not win. We hope to see you all in Bethesda and look forward to discuss your research with you.

General Description

The International Symposium on Polymer Analysis and Characterization (ISPAC) is a non-profit scientific organization whose purpose is to provide an international forum for the presentation of recent advances in the field of polymer analysis and characterization methodologies. As such, the meeting needs a good representation of scientists of all ages and stages of their careers in order to bring a good balance of energy and experience to the meeting and to ensure an ample supply of younger talent in the profession.  In view of the cost of attending conferences, it is desirable for ISPAC to establish a Travel Award program to support the attendance of selected graduate students and postdocs to attend the ISPAC.  The Governing Board of ISPAC has decided to offer 5 travel awards to selected graduate students and/or postdocs.  Each recipient will get a free registration plus $500 in travel support. 

Travel Award Rules

1. Deadlines for Receipt of Travel Award Applications is 31 March 2018. All award applicants will be notified by email of their award status by 15 April 2018.
2. The amount of each award:  Free ISPAC registration and $500 in travel support. 
3. Criteria for applicants: 
   1.    Each applicant must submit an abstract, a short one-page CV and fill in the application form provided on the website below. 
   2.    The applicant must be a graduate student in good standing or a postdoctoral fellow within five years after receiving the doctoral degree.
4. A judging panel will be appointed by the ISPAC Chair to evaluate the applicants and decide on the awardees. The scientific quality of the abstract, match with the conference theme, and the academic quality of the candidate will be considered.
5. After the receipt of the award, each awardee should provide relevant photographs to ISPAC in order for ISPAC to properly publicize the awards.  The awardees will agree to allow ISPAC to use their names and photographs in emails, newsletters, websites and other media, as needed.

If you want to apply for the award, please fill in the application form below. You do not need to register at the moment.

Application is closed.