33rd Australasian Polymer Symposium

The 33rd Australasian Polymer Symposium (33APS) was held at The Wrest Point Convention Centre, Hobart, Tasmania, 12–15 February 2012, under the auspices of the Polymer Division of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI).

The APS is the flagship meeting for polymer science in Australia and, over the years, the symposium has developed a strong reputation for bringing together the latest polymer research from top international and Australian polymer scientists. 33APS welcomed several leading plenary and keynote speakers from around the world, and also a very large number – over 300 – of contributors. This year the proportion of international delegates was again nearly a third of our total number, which shows that APS is now truly an international event. The program also included several special sessions, including an Early Career Researchers Symposium and a session on innovation, which covered the very dynamic topic of knowledge transfer from academia to industry.

The scientific program covered all areas of polymer science and engineering, with themes on ‘Latest Developments in Polymer Synthesis’, ‘Latest Trends in Polymer Characterization’, ‘Advance Materials’, ‘Polymers for Health’, ‘Polymers and the Environment’ and ‘Polymers for Electronics and Energy’. Plenary lectures were given by Professor Harm-Anton Klok (EPF Lausanne),^{[ 1 ]} Professor Heather Maynard (UCLA), Professor Gordon Wallace (University of Wollongong), Professor David Haddleton (University of Warwick), Professor Ludwick Leibler (ESPCI) and Professor Xi Zhang (Tsinghua University). Each session was championed by a keynote lecture delivered by invited speakers: Professor Stuart Rowan (Case Western Reserve University), Dr Remzi Becer (University of Warwick),^{[ 2 ]} Professor Thomas Junkers (Universiteit Hasselt),^{[ 3 ]} Professor Steven Holdcroft (Simon Fraser University),^{[ 4 ]} Associate Professor Brian Hawkett (The University of Sydney), Professor Laurent Fontaine (LCOM – Chimie Des Polymères),^{[ 5 ]} Professor Feihe Huang (Zhejiang University), Professor Martina Stenzel (University of New South Wales),^{[ 6 ]} Professor Junpo He (Fudan University),^{[ 7 ]} Professor Ulrich Wiesner (Cornell University), Professor Theresa Reineke (University of Minnesota), Professor Jas Pal Badyal (Durham University),^{[ 8 ]} Professor Bert Klumperman (Stellenbosch University),^{[ 9 ]} Dr Eduardo Vivaldo-Lima (Universidad Nacional Autonoma De Mexico),^{[ 10 ]} Professor Brent Sumerlin (Southern Methodist University), Professor Filip DuPrez (Ghent University), Professor Richard Kaner (UCLA), Professor Philippe Guégan (Université D’Evry Val D’Essonne),^{[ 11 ]} Professor Michael Monteiro (The University of Queensland),^{[ 12 ]} and Professor Nicolas Voelcker (University of South Australia).

These sessions, complemented by a well-attended poster session, had topics at the interface between polymer science and other disciplines, and addressed a range of important issues faced by our modern society in medicine, energy, and the environment. Such a varied program shows the multidisciplinary aspect of polymer science, and how collaborations across fields are the best approach to tackle today’s challenges.

Traditionally, APS has always focussed on early career researchers. A special session for early career researchers saw presentations by Dr Patrice Castignolles (University Of Western Sydney),^{[ 13 ]} Dr Kristopher Thurecht (University of Queensland), Dr Anthony Granville (University of New South Wales) and Dr Daniel Keddie (CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering). Young researchers are key to our discipline, and it was very pleasing to see that students made up more than a third of our total delegate numbers. Despite becoming a large international event, APS has clearly not lost its original focus!

The scientific program ended on the Wednesday afternoon with a special session on living radical polymerization (or reversible deactivation radical polymerization, according to the nomenclature recommended by IUPAC), introduced with a plenary lecture by Professor David Haddleton, and concluded with a special treat: a plenary lecture by the recipients of the 2011 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science, Professor David Solomon (University of Melbourne) and Dr Ezio Rizzardo (CSIRO).^{[ 14 ]} David and Ezio took us through the amazing journey that was the discovery of nitroxide-mediated polymerization and reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer, two of the major living radical polymerization techniques.

The reputation of APS goes further than great science; it is also famous for its warm and convivial atmosphere. This year again, we had a busy social schedule, which started with a welcome reception on Sunday night in one of the best wineries in Tasmania, Meadow Bank Winery. In pure Tasmanian spirit, the delegates were welcomed with great wine and great food, and enjoyed the sunset over the hills surrounding Hobart. A special student night was held at Squires Bounty in Salamanca Place, Hobart, and research groups mingled for the all-important networking opportunity. The symposium dinner was held on the Wednesday night at Wrest Point Convention Centre, during which prize winners were announced. The Treloar Prize, awarded for outstanding oral and poster presentations by young polymer scientists at National or International Polymer Division Meetings, was awarded to Zhou Zhang (University of Melbourne)^{[ 15 ]} and Adrian Sulistio (University of Melbourne)^{[ 16 ]} for best oral presentation, and Wei Zhao (The University of Sydney) for best poster presentation. The Prize is named in honour of the late Dr Edward (Ted) Treloar who was an enthusiastic supporter of young polymer scientists in Australia. During the dinner, Dr Graeme Moad (CSIRO) also received the highly prestigious Batteard-Jordan Australian Polymer Medal,^{[ 17 ]} and Professor Greg Qiao (University of Melbourne)^{[ 15 , 16 ]} and Professor Martina Stenzel (University of New South Wales)^{[ 6 ]} each received a Polymer Division Citation for their contributions and service to polymer science and/or technology.

This special issue includes some of the best contributions to 33APS, and I hope you will enjoy reading the articles as much as delegates enjoyed listening to the talks and examining the posters. We are now looking forward to the next edition of the meeting, the 34APS, which will be held in Darwin from 7 to 10 July 2013 and chaired by Dr Kevin Jack from the University of Queensland.