May 20 - 23, 2013
Safety Harbor Hotel and Conference Center
Safety Harbor,
Florida
CO-ORGANIZERS
|
Dr. Dylan J. Boday IBM Materials Engineering Office 955/9032-1 9000 S. Rita Road Tuscon, AZ 85744 Phone: 520-799-2180 Email: dboday@us.ibm.com |
Professor Marc A. Hillmyer Center for Sustainable Polymers UMN Dept. of Chemistry 207 Pleasant St., SE Minneapolis, MN 55455 Email: hillmyer@umn.edu |
CONFIRMED SPEAKERS
Kate Beers (NIST)
Dylan Boday (IBM)
Michelle Brand (DSM)
H. N. Cheng (USDA)
Francois deBie (Purac)
Andrew Dove (Warwick)
Richard Gross (NYU-Poly)
Jim Hedrick (IBM)
Marc Hillmyer (University of Minnesota)
Mike Kessler (Iowa State University)
Joseph Kuczynski (IBM)
Ellen Lee (Ford Motor Company)
Krzysztof Matyjaszewski (Carnegie Mellon University)
Stefan Mecking (University of Konstanz)
Steve Miller (University of Florida)
Robert Moon (Forest Products Laboratory)
Jeff Pyun (Arizona)
Megan Robertson (University of Houston)
Ulrich Schubert (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena)
Erwin Vink (NatureWorks)
Robert M. Waymouth (Stanford)
Charlotte Williams (Imperial)
Jeffrey Youngblood (Purdue University)
INTRODUCTION AND INVITATION
The use and development of materials from renewable sources
is not a new concept, and there are many examples in history of the use of
renewable materials to prepare primitive tools, clothes and shelter. As the
complexity of human requirements increased, so did the materials and by the
19th century durable materials were being prepared from renewable
resources such as vulcanized rubber and adhesives from starches and other
natural resins. However, the
widespread use of these materials was diminished in the 20th
century with the development of fossil fuel derived leading to the
polymer renaissance. In the following decades, coal and petrol-based
polymers could be found in nearly every item we touched, e.g., clothing,
packaging, paints, adhesives and plastics.
Today, the use of polymers is widespread but the sources
which are used to prepare them are coming under scrutiny. The traditional sources to prepare the vast majority of conventional polymers
are finite and will begin to dwindle in the future. This will put a
significant cost pressure on the polymers prepared from these finite
resources. Lastly, as the world begins to become much more aware of the
needs for a sustainable future, there will be increasing pressure to
incorporate sustainable materials. With these concerns, there is now a
growing shift back to polymeric materials from renewable sources.
Significant research is ongoing to develop new or improved products and
processes based on sustainability.
This workshop will bring together researchers from academia, industry, and government to present and discuss their activities in the broad area of sustainable polymers. Recent research in new materials, new processes, and new technologies that focus on sustainable practices in polymer science and technology will be presented.
