Chemistry International | 2019
Polymer for Sustainable Development
Abstract
by Aneli Fourie The 13th International Conference on “Advanced Polymers via Macromolecular Engineering” (APME 2019) was held in the beautiful, historic town of Stellenbosch in South Africa from 15-18 April 2019. A satisfactory number of delegates (180 participants) participated, representing 25 countries other than South Africa. Other western countries represented were Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Korea, Malaysia, Nigeria, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, United Kingdom and USA. 72 students actively participated in APME 2019. The APME 2019 Conference was opened by Yusuf Yagci, IUPAC Representative, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, and Eugene Cloete, Vice-Rector (Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa). 92 talks were presented (including 12 plenary/keynote speakers, 41 invited speakers and 39 oral submissions), by experts in their field, reporting the state-ofthe-art in various fields, often encompassing the last few years of research. All others were accommodated in a lively poster session especially popular for student presentations. 41 Posters of a high standard were selected and presented at the poster session on Tuesday, 16 April. Three young scientists (MSc / PhD level) were awarded poster prices sponsored by The Royal Society of Chemistry. • Lisa Fortuin, University of Stellenbosch; “Biodegradable polymeric prodrugs for the targeted delivery of artemetherlumefantrine” • Jana Kohn, Humbolt-Universität zu Berlin; “Expanding chemical space of mussel-inspired polymerization toward multifunctional monomers” • Elizalde Iraizoz Fermin, University of Basque Country, Spain; “Dynamically crosslinked thermos-responsive polyurethanes”