From presenting posters to leading scientific sessions, members of the University of Delaware community actively engaged in the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2025 meeting, which took place August 17–21 in Washington, DC, and online. Highlights from UD’s College of Engineering include a best-poster award, updates from alumni and numerous research talks.
Doctoral student Anna Freund (above) won a best-poster award from the ACS division of polymer science, materials and engineering. Her poster, Visualizing the separation at composite interfaces via Spirolactam Mechanophore activation, described her research on “smart” molecules that detect tiny cracks that form due to stress buildup in polymer composites.
Freund was one of several UD students who presented at ACS Fall 2025. Other COE student poster and oral presentations focused on exploring how lignin-based compounds form reusable supramolecular gels, developing a gel that can be stiffened on demand to help cartilage cells regain their shape and function and describing analytical models to help predict the chemical breakdown of polymers designed to be easy-to-recycle, as well as additional topics.
Will Quintana EG ’23, now a doctoral student at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Alumni were also represented at the conference, including a member of the inaugural Materials Science and Engineering undergraduate cohort. Will Quintana ’23, now a doctoral student at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, presented a poster detailing his research on liquid crystalline polymers and resultant materials.
Several faculty delivered invited talks. Topics included designing light-responsive soft materials to probe and control cellular responses, synthesizing polymers with both electronic and ionic conductivity and addressing challenges with the robustness of self-healing coatings. Faculty members also presented their research at sessions focused on next-generation macromolecular self-assembled systems, data analytics and artificial intelligence, polymers with improved toughness and processability for military needs and other chemistry-related areas.
UD researchers also helped shape the content for the meeting, which brought together thousands of chemistry professionals to share ideas and advance scientific and technical knowledge. For example, faculty co-organized sessions on networks, gels and polyelectrolytes and advanced scanned probe, microscopy and spectroscopy techniques for polymers and soft matter.
These are just a few highlights of the UD research represented at ACS Fall 2025. Congratulations to all who participated!