Outstanding participation of researchers from DEMa and PPGCEM at the 16th CBPol

Researchers from DEMa and PPGCEM had outstanding participation in the 16^th Brazilian Polymer Conference (16^th CBPOL), with presentations of scientific studies in the form of plenary lectures, keynote lecture, oral and poster presentations, as well as participation in the scientific committee, organization of symposia, award committee and session chair. The congress was held remotely and online between the 24th and 28th of October 2021, with the city of Ouro Preto-MG as the honored location. The event, which is the largest and most important Brazilian congress in the field of polymers, had 444 participants, from Brazil and abroad. Professors delivered 3 plenary lectures: Prof. Rosario E. S. Bretas on the topic “Electrospinning: An Old Technique for New Applications”; Prof. Sílvia H. P. Bettini on the theme “Industrial citrus waste: an opportunity to obtain biodegradable and flexible compounds”; and Prof. André R. Studart, from ETH Zürich, Switzerland, a PPGCEM former doctoral student supervised by Prof. Victor. C. Pandolfelli, on the theme “3D Printing of Polymers into Biologically-Inspired Structures”. Prof. Juliano Elvis de Oliveira, a PPGCEM former doctoral student supervised by Prof. Luiz H. C. Mattoso, currently at the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA), was awarded with the ABPOL Young Scientist Prize and gave the keynote lecture “Science and Engineering of Polymers Applied in Biological Systems”. Professors also delivered 3 oral presentations: Prof. José A. Sousa on the topic “Mechanical strength behavior of polypropylene composites with hybrid glass fibers and hollow microspheres”, developed by the master's student Gabriel Matos da Silva and by the PPGCEM former doctoral student Gustavo B. Carvalho, in collaboration with Prof. Leonardo B. Canto; Prof. Lidiane Cristina Costa on the topic “Crystallization kinetics of poly (lactic acid)/halloysite nanocomposites” developed by the PPGCEM former master's student Guilherme G. Biazin, co-supervised by Prof. Juliano Marini; and Prof. Leonardo B. Canto on the topic “Injection overmolded polymer-metal structures” developed by doctoral student Gean H. M. Oliveira. In addition to these, postdoctoral fellow Samarah Vargas Harb, supervised by Prof. Luiz A. Pessan, gave a talk about “Printed scaffolds composed of PLA-TCP-SiO2 and PLA-TCP-MgO for bone tissue engineering” and doctoral student Felipe O. C. Bernardo, supervised by Prof. Sebastião V. Canevarolo Jr., gave a talk about “Influence of different kneading blocks elements on polymer mixture dispersion during twin-screw extrusion”. Several works were also presented in the form of posters by doctoral students, masters and undergraduates. Graduate student Yan F. G. Silva, supervised by Prof. Juliano Marini, received the award for the 3^rd best poster presented by undergraduate students. Some professors were also involved in the organization of the event: Juliano Marini, Leonardo B. Canto, Lidiane C. Costa, Luiz Antonio Pessan, Silvia H. P. Bettini were members of the scientific committee; Juliano Marini, Leonardo B. Canto, Rosario E.S. Bretas and Sílvia H.P. Bettini organized symposia; Leonardo B. Canto and Lidiane C. Costa were chairs of oral sessions; Luiz A. Pessan participated in the selection committee for the ABPol Prof. Eloisa Mano award; and Lidiane C. Costa participated in the congress planning meetings as director of Brazilian Association of Polymers (ABPOL). During the congress, there was a meeting of the Editorial Board of the “Polímeros Ciência e Tecnologia” Journal, whose Editor-in-Chief is Prof. Sebastião V. Canevarolo Jr. At the closing ceremony of the congress, the new Board of ABPol took office, with the reappointment of Prof. Lidiane C. Costa, together with Professors Daniela Becker (UDESC) and Edson Noriyuki Ito (UFRN), both PPGCEM former doctoral students. Professors Luiz A. Pessan and Sebastião V. Canevarolo Jr were reappointed as advisor board members of ABPol, along with Prof. Amanda Dantas de Oliveira (UFPel) and Dr. José Donato Ambrósio, both PPGCEM former doctoral students, who joined to the current advisory board member Prof. Leonardo B. Canto. Professors Luiz A. Pessan and Amanda Dantas de Oliveira (UFPel) were also appointed to the ABPol Fiscal Commission. This outstanding participation of DEMa/PPGCEM researchers in the 16^th CBPOL is the result of the quality of their scientific work and reaffirms a long tradition of involvement with ABPol.