International Polymer Characterization Conference—POLY-CHAR 2020 (Venice)

POLY-CHAR 2020 [Venice] is an International Polymer Characterization Conference, under the auspices of the Scientific Committee of POLY-CHAR and IUPAC. This event, which was originally scheduled for May 2020, but was postponed due to the pandemic, was held, for the first time in virtual format, from 12–14 April 2021. This conference was hosted by the University of Padova, Italy.

Due to the worldwide travel restrictions, it was not possible to meet physically, i.e. to experience lectures and discussions in a real conference hall, to exchange ideas over a coffee during the breaks and to discuss together next to the posters. The extra work needed for the scientific research activities coupled with e-teaching or even e-research was absolutely enormous during the pandemic emergency. The scientific committee as well as the organizing committee of POLY-CHAR were extremely grateful for the participation of many excellent speakers from interdisciplinary fields (e.g. physicists, chemists, materials scientists, biologists etc.) from all 5 continents, sharing their research findings from theoretical to experimental as well as from fundamental to applied aspects of polymers. The areas of expertise explored in the program spanned from materials science to medicine, from nutrition to forensic science, from nanotechnology to 3D printing, etc. Participants were heroic in overcoming the time-zone differences, attendance was always very high and, even if in virtual form, attendees kept this fabulous POLY-CHAR saga active. Of course, everybody’s wish was that travel restriction will be lifted soon.

A total of 8 plenary speakers, 27 invited speakers, 57 oral speakers, 8 poster presenters and 100 participants from 27 countries with 75 international participants participated in POLY-CHAR 2020 [Venice].

The conference presentations were organised under the core themes of:

1. Polymers and the environment: Recycling and land remediation

2. Applications of polymers: food, forensics, adhesives, coatings and preservation of cultural heritage

3. Characterisation of polymers

4. Mechanics of polymers—Nanoindentation

5. 3D printing

6. Polymer physics, theory and simulations

7. Synthesis of polymers

8. Biopolymers, biomedical materials and biotechnology

9. Nanomaterials and smart materials

The POLY-CHAR prizes for the Best Oral Presentations were awarded to:

1. Veronika Gajdosova, Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, for her work on Antioxidant and pro-oxidant activity of phenolic stabilizers during photooxidation of polyolefins revealed by microscopic methods

2. Anna Liguori, University of Bologna and INSTM, Italy, for her work on Hybrid composite scaffolds for spinal interbody fusion

3. Zhiqiang Zeng, University of Science and Technology of China, China for his work on Investigation of multifunctional triphenylamine Schiff-base compounds towards electrochromic applications

Group photo of the virtual conference

Two IUPAC Awards for Best Student Posters were presented to:

1. Zrinka Buhin Šturlić, University of Zagreb, Croatia for her work on PCL/nano-ZnO protective coatings for metals;

2. Yu Jeong Bae, Kyungpook National University, Korea for her work on Structural characteristics and properties of silk/rayon webs and non-woven fabrics.

One POLY-CHAR Prize for the Best Student Poster was awarded to:

1. Laura Dehondt, Tweed Research Center, Onyx Développement SAS, Groupe Nutriset, France for her poster Optimization of the starch extraction in Cyperus Esculentus to increase the digestibility of a tigernut-based juice

The next POLY-CHAR conferences were planned as follows: virtual POLY-CHAR 2022 [Siegen & Halle], Germany in May 2022 and POLY-CHAR 2023 [Auckland], New Zealand in January 2023.