During the 21st-24th of June 2016 the very first edition of POLYMAT SPOTLIGHT (http://polymat-spotlight.eu) took place in the beautiful city of San Sebastian in Northern Spain.
POLYMAT SPOTLIGHT is a newly created international forum that aims at bringing together world-leading academics and key industries interested in emerging and technologically-relevant macromolecular materials. Organised by Prof. Aurelio Mateo-Alonso, the first edition of POLYMAT SPOTLIGHT was devoted to Novel Approaches to 2D and Porous Polymers, including synthesis, properties and applications.
This conference has been organised by POLYMAT (http://polymat.eu) a research centre on macromolecular materials ascribed to the University of the Basque Country, which is also member of the network of Basque Excellence Research Centres (BERC). The trigger for this initiative has been the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 through the project 2D-INK, a Future and Emerging Technologies action (FET Open).
The conference venue was the Miramar Palace with one of the most spectacular views of the city. The program was organised to promote interactions between researchers with plenty of time for discussion during sessions, cocktails, coffee breaks and lunches, all taking place in the Miramar Palace.
Overall, 6 Plenary lectures and 13 Keynote lectures from recognised experts from all over the globe were arranged over the four days of the conference, including those of Professors Markus Antonietti, Maurizio Prato, Donglin Jiang, Nazario Martin, Graham Bodwell and Colin Nuckolls. The program was completed with 13 contributing lectures, 18 flash presentations and 31 posters, attracting >100 participants. To ensure the visibility of the contributing lecturers by including their talks in-between two invited (Plenary or Keynote) lectures.
With the support of Journal of Materials Chemistry A and Materials Horizons, three prizes were awarded to the best posters.
Given the great welcome that POLYMAT SPOTLIGHT has received, it will be organised on biyearly basis from now on. Indeed, the organisers are already working on the 2018 edition.
More photos can be found at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/142817369@N04/albums/72157670123885276
