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Vol.
33 No. 5
September-October 2011
by Harald Pasch and Aneli Fourie
The 11th Annual UNESCO/IUPAC Conference on Functional Polymeric Materials & Composites, which took place 27–29 April 2011 at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies, South Africa, attracted 143 participants who took part in its program focused on synthesis, characterization, properties, and application. Attendees represented 29 countries other than South Africa. Delegates from the African continent were from Zimbabwe. The total number of students who actively participated was 46 (they were from 12 historically black universities). Other Western countries represented were Austria, Australia, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Iraq, Italy, India, Iran, Japan, France, Mauritius, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Poland, Philippines, The Netherlands, Ukraine, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sweden, UK, and USA.
The UNESCO/IUPAC Conference was opened by T.E. Cloete, dean of the Faculty of Science, University of Stellenbosch, and H. Pasch, IUPAC representative, Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science, University of Stellenbosch.
A UNESCO/IUPAC Workshop was held on 26 April that featured seven invited talks. The conference itself fesatured 47 talks, of which 6 were plenary speakers, 21 invited speakers, and 20 oral submissions). In addition there was a lively poster session featuring 53 posters, especially popular for student presentations. Three poster prizes were awarded to the following young scientists (M.Sc./Ph.D. level):
- Best Poster: S.S. Ndlovu, University of the Free State, South Africa, “The Effect of Utilizing Thermally Degraded LDPE as a Compatibilizer in LDPE/Wood Composites”
- Second Best Poster: Christina Schmid, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, “Switching from RAFT to ROP: A Facily Route to Complex and Sulphur-Free Macromolecular Architectures”
- Third Best Poster: Margaretha Brand, University of Stellenbosch, “Solution Crystallization Analysis by Laser Light Acattering: Applications to Polyolefins”
The topics of the workshop and conference lectures can be found online at the address below.
The following organizations provided considerable support, either financial or in kind:
- Sasol Polymers Corporate
- IUPAC
Mondi Packaging SA
- Plascon South Africa (Pty) Ltd.
- African Sun Media
Papers are being collected for peer review for inclusion in Macromolecular Symposia.
The organizing committee comprised H. Pasch, L. Klumperman, A.J. van Reenen, P.E. Mallon, and Aneli Fourie, all from the Department of Chemistry & Polymer Science at the University of Stellenbosch.
http://academic.sun.ac.za/unesco/Conferences/Conference2011
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last modified 12 September 2011.
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