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The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at North Carolina State University hosted the inaugural SoftMatt-2008 Symposium on June 19th, 2008, at the university's Centennial Campus. The symposium brought together undergraduate and graduate student researchers from the field of soft materials—those working in the areas of polymers, colloids, and biological systems—to present their findings.
Dr. Jan Genzer, professor of chemical and bimolecular engineering at NC State and one of the organizers for the event, said the goals for the symposium were to provide students with a forum in which to share their results and meet their peers. He said that he hoped the event would also “foster collaborations between researchers both nationally and internationally, provide undergraduates information about graduate school at NC State, and serve as a recruiting opportunity for local companies.”
Genzer and the other symposium organizers, NC State's chemical and biomolecular engineering graduate students Sara Arvidson, Kristen Roskov and Jairus Kleinert, said they hoped each participant would gain many opportunities at the symposium, such as “establishing new professional contacts, sharing their research in a friendly environment with their peers, and gaining a sense of the close-knit research community that exists in our department.”
“It seemed like a really good forum for young researchers to get together on a common topic,” said Maura McEwan of the University of Virginia, who was presenting her research on dispersions of polymer-grafted nano-particles and the impact of molecular weight. “It's very inspiring to interface with other students and learn a little bit about their approach and see people in a similar field.”
The five speakers at the symposium also sparked discussion among participants. Gary Fisher, a senior in physics at NC State presenting his research in binding gold nanoparticles to surface-anchored polymers, said that one discussion on two-faced particles was “very interesting and had some applications to my own research. So I'll be tracking the speaker down to talk about that.” As an undergraduate, the symposium was a particularly good opportunity for Fisher because, as he said, “when I go to grad school I'll have to do this type of thing again, so it's been a very positive experience.”
The symposium attracted presenters from universities in fifteen states, plus strong local representation from Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and host NC State. The event also drew students from as far as the National Center for NanoScience and Technology, China; Seoul National University, Korea; IIT-Bombay, India and McGill University, Canada.
Genzer said he believed that the strong national and international representation could be attributed to the 82nd ACS Colloid and Surface Science Symposium, which took place June 15-18 at NC State and at which many SoftMatt presenters also attended.
“In fact, we planned SoftMatt to be convenient for the participants of the ACS Colloids meeting,” Genzer said. “It was a unique opportunity, and I believe the timing was right.”
“When you have something new,” he continued, “people don’t know what to expect. Now that we’ve done it once it will be easier to advertise it in the future.” He said that the organizers hope for a follow-up event, if not next year, then definitely the year after, as they have already received very positive feedback.
Neeraj Pardhy of the University of Massachusetts Lowell said he would certainly return if the event is held again. “It’s been fun,” he said, “you get to know a lot of people working in your field with new ideas.”
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