The MPD Education Committee

Education Committee Chairman and contact for Student inquiries:
Dr. Jonathan S. Colton
Georgia Institute of Technology
Tel: +1 404-894-7407
Fax: +1 404-894-9342

Terry Kehne
Tel: +1 865-362-2059
Fax: +1 865-938-4093

Len Czuba
Tel: +1 630-632-3560
Fax: +1 630-627-9242

Stu Kaplan
Tel: +1 812-379-4696
Fax: +1 812-374-0847

Student Paper Award at ANTEC

$1,000 honorarium with up to $500 travel allowance

Each year at SPE's Annual Technical Conference (ANTEC), the Medical Plastics Division awards a $1,000 honorarium for the best paper that reports research completed during the course of the one’s undergraduate or graduate studies. Anyone can request that his/her paper be considered for this award. Typically, the student is the first author on the paper. The winning student author will be required to present the paper covering his/her work during one of the Medical Plastics Division's sessions at ANTEC. The $1,000 honorarium will be awarded after the presentation of the paper at ANTEC. In addition, the division will reimburse up to $500 of the winner’s travel expenses not covered by other sources. One need not be a current student to win the award, but the work must have been performed when a student.

Students should follow the ANTEC paper submission procedures and deadlines and list MPD as the division to which the paper is submitted. In addition, the student should submit the following information to the chair of the MPD Education Committee: Name; Title of paper; Status as student when research performed – undergraduate, M.S., or Ph.D.; Current employment status – enrolled student (undergraduate, M.S., Ph.D.), or graduation date and current place of employment.

The winner of the award will be announced by March 1.

Please contact the MPD Education Committee for more information.

High School Science Fair Project Award
$200.00 given to student winner and $100.00 to teacher/sponsor for the school
The Medical Plastics Division will fund an award of $200 to the deserving student and $100 to the teacher/sponsor at a State Science Fair. The $100 is to be used for the school science program. As many as 50 awards, one for each state, could be awarded, depending only on the interest and the efforts of local MPD members in each state. Many junior high school students also participate in science fairs and are eligible for this award.

Important dates: This depends on the schedule for science fairs in each state.
Usually students select projects in the Fall of the year.

Contact the MPD Education Committee for more information.

Be a High School Science Fair Judge
We are offering Division members a chance to represent MPD as judges in the state science fair in their home state. We will fund an award of $200 to be given to the student determined by you, the SPE member representing MPD. Interested members can contact the MPD Education Committee and arrange to have a $200.00 award ready to be awarded to a student exhibitor at his/her state science fair. Give us a call for details.

We recommend that interested members immediately begin the process of promoting medical plastics or polymers in general by contacting your state's science fair coordinator and advise the coordinator of this award opportunity. The coordinator can then circulate information to participating science fair teachers/sponsors statewide at this time when students are selecting their projects. Contact your local high school or junior high school science teacher. Ask them about the state science fair sponsor in your state (e.g., in Illinois the sponsor organization is the Illinois Junior Academy of Science.)