Forty members of the New England Rubber and Plastics Group (NERPG) gathered at IMS for their annual symposium. The NERPG is an organization of scientists and administration from companies that use rubber, plastics, and related materials in their products. The UConn student chapter of the American Chemical Society Rubber Division invited the NERPG to Storrs for their 2026 gathering. The schedule included building tours, faculty talks, and poster presentations by polymer students.

Event participants toured Science 1 to see the new high-tech research labs and the learn about laboratory testing available to companies through the IMS Industrial Affiliates Program (IAP). They also spoke with co-directors Hatice Bodugoz-Senturk and Brianna Robbins about IAP membership benefits.

The poster session included 23 IMS graduate students. NERPG members spent 2 hours speaking with students to learn about the vast array of research found at IMS. NERPG also gave generous cash awards for the top three posters.

The poster session was followed by research presentations from 3 IMS resident faculty members, Anson Ma, Mihail Duduta, and Douglas Adamson. Each gave a 30-minute overview of their groups’ research direction and past achievements.

At the conclusion of the symposium the group relocated off campus to Hops 44 for a buffet dinner.

The NERPG Symposium was a great success. Members of local industry were able to visit the UConn campus and learn about the many facets of the Institute of Materials Science and the students were able to meet with seasoned scientists. The success and coordination of the symposium was possible due to dedicated graduate students.  Twenty-three presented posters.  Mark Xu, Akram Alhadainy, Zhenpeng He, and Jack Conley ran the welcome and check-in station. Vishwa Suthar, Hoang-Phuc Pham, and Mahdad Mahmoudi helped with logistics and running the building tours. Mothana Al-Omari coordinated food delivery  and helped with logistics and problem solving. Special thanks to Brenden Ferland for coordinating and leading the event.

We hope this is the first of many NERPG symposiums to be held at UConn.