Advanced Polymers via Macromolecular Engineering

The 13^th International Conference on “Advanced Polymers via Macromolecular Engineering” (APME 2019) was held in the beautiful, historic town of Stellenbosch in South Africa from 15-18 April 2019.

A satisfactory number of delegates (180 participants) participated, representing 25 countries other than South Africa. Other western countries represented were Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Korea, Malaysia, Nigeria, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, United Kingdom and USA. 72 students actively participated in APME 2019.

The APME 2019 Conference was opened by Yusuf Yagci, IUPAC Representative, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, and Eugene Cloete, Vice-Rector (Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa).

92 talks were presented (including 12 plenary/keynote speakers, 41 invited speakers and 39 oral submissions), by experts in their field, reporting the state-of-the-art in various fields, often encompassing the last few years of research. All others were accommodated in a lively poster session especially popular for student presentations.

41 Posters of a high standard were selected and presented at the poster session on Tuesday, 16 April. Three young scientists (MSc / PhD level) were awarded poster prices sponsored by The Royal Society of Chemistry.

1. Lisa Fortuin, University of Stellenbosch; “Biodegradable polymeric prodrugs for the targeted delivery of artemether- lumefantrine”

2. Jana Kohn, Humbolt-Universität zu Berlin; “Expanding chemical space of mussel-inspired polymerization toward multifunctional monomers”

3. Elizalde Iraizoz Fermin, University of Basque Country, Spain; “Dynamically crosslinked thermos-responsive polyurethanes”

Wiley-VCH: Macromolecular Journals sponsored two prizes for best talk and were awarded to the following young scientists (MSc/ PhD level):

1. Hannes Houck, Ghent University, Belgium; “Light-stabilised dynamic materials”

2. Kristina Pflug, University of Hamburg, Germany; “Closing the circle of microstructure and polymer properties for polyethylene via a combined analytical and modelling approach”

An Elsevier Workshop was presented by Christiane Barranguet entitled “How to produce an international publication: Getting published & Promoting your work.”

The conference chairs comprised of Bert Klumperman (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa), Munmaya Mishra (Altria – Center for Research & Technology, USA) and Yusuf Yagci (Istanbul Technical University, Turkey). The local and programme committee comprised of Bert Klumperman, Albert van Reenen, Harald Pasch and Peter Mallon (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa). The scientific committee comprised of Michel Baltas (CNRS, University of Toulouse, France), Dominique Bonnet (University of Strasbourg, France), Gilbert Lassale (Evotec, France), Sebastien Papot (University of Poitiers, France), Michel Perez (Pierre Fabre, France), Janos Sapi (SCT & University of Reims-Champagne-Ardenne, France), Luc van Hijfte (SCT & Novithera, France). The scientific advisory board comprised of Lian Hutchings (University of Durham, United Kingdom), Eva Harth (University of Houston, USA), Jean-Francois Lutz (Institut Charles Sadron, France), Fiilp Du Prez (Ghent University, Belgium) and Hölger Schonherr (University of Siegen, Germany).

More details and full program are available online http://academic.sun.ac.za/apme