The award, established by the Union Carbide Corporation (a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company), is given to the authors of an outstanding paper presented at each national meeting of the ACS. Royalties from Doolittle's book "Technology of Solvents and Plasticizers" finance a $1,000 prize.
Advincula co-authored the winning paper, "Adsorption Phenomena of Polyelectrolytes, Amphiphilic Block and Star Copolymers on Surfaces as Investigated by the Quartz Crystal Microbalance Method," with Mi-Kyoung Park, a UH research assistant, Stergios Pispas and Nikos Hadjichristidis from the University of Athens-Greece, and Jimmy W. Mays from the University of Tennessee.
While Advincula shares the award with his co-authors, who were involved more in the experimental part and materials contribution, his contribution was key in the win with the award criteria primarily being based on presentation and development and analysis of scientific content, which was his role in the project.
"The award has been given since 1981, with a number of the recipients having made outstanding contributions to the polymer field throughout their careers," Advincula said. "This work is especially relevant to research into new materials based on polymers that have practical applications in adhesives, coatings and lubricants.
"By investigating how polymers 'stick' to surfaces in real time, we can understand and control the formation of new thin film polymer materials even at the nanoscale. It is of paramount importance in a number of existing technologies, from semiconductor processing t
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Contact: Lisa Merkl
lkmerkl@uh.edu
713-743-8192
University of Houston
26-Mar-2004