Engineering Conferences International, in technical co-sponsorship with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, is sponsoring the seventh conference in the series on "Polymer Reaction Engineering." The conference will take place May 3-8, 2009 at the Crowne Plaza/Brock Hotel in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.

This conference provides a forum for presentation of emerging technologies and scientific advancements in the area of polymer reaction engineering. The speakers and attendees come from several sectors of academia and industry or other research organizations. This format has been adopted for the last six PRE conferences and found to be very successful.

The program chair is Professor Alexander Penlidis (University of Waterloo); co-chairs are Dr. John R. Richards (DuPont) and Professor Marc A. Dubé (University of Ottawa). The scientific committee includes Professors Giuseppe Storti (ETH, Switzerland), Donald Sundberg (Univ. of New Hampshire, USA), and Eduardo Vivaldo-Lima (UNAM, Mexico), and Drs. Klaus-Dieter Hungenberg (BASF, Germany), Daryoosh Beigzadeh (Dow, USA) and Jon Debling (BASF, USA) .

Conference (lecture) sessions are scheduled on the following topics:

• Mathematical Modeling and Scale-up of Copolymerization processes
• Emulsion and Suspension Polymerization: New Developments and Issues for PRE
• PRE of Controlled Radical Polymerizations: Practical Manufacturing Issues
• Reactive Processing and Modification: Interactions with PRE
• Nano-structured Polymer Materials and Nano-particles: Reactions and Processing Issues
• Polymers from Renewable Sources, Bio-polymers and Biologically Degradable Polymers

Participants are strongly encouraged to submit abstracts for the poster sessions, which form an integral part of the meeting. Submission will be available on the conference web site soon. Poster contributions will be solicited on the following topics (complementary to the lecture sessions):

• In-line and on-line process analysis; reactor monitoring, optimization and control; polymer characterization (with emphasis on branching detection)
• Structure-properties-performance relationships and their use in PRE optimization/control schemes
• Process intensification for PRE
• Clean polymer technologies
• New product design: principles and methodology
• Bio-medical applications of polymers
• Micro-reactor technology: why is it useful for PRE?
• High-throughput systems and applications to PRE
• New catalysts and catalytic polymerizations
• Step-growth polymerizations: reactor design and mixing issues
• Use of computational chemistry tools (molecular simulations) for PRE applications
• Emulsion/suspension/ dispersion polymerizations
• Polymer thermodynamics in heterogeneous polymerizations: new developments and issues
• Open to other PRE topics/applications

The Niagara Falls area, often referred to as the ‘Land of the Thundering Waters’, is far more than a natural phenomenon. It is a world-class destination with adventures for all ages. It is the scene of important historical and industrial events, the Welland Canal, one-of-a-kind sightseeing (including the falls), a thriving nightlife, Victorian mansions, vineyards, orchards and ice wine. Just a few minutes away, by the Niagara River and Lake Ontario is the beautiful town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, which was once the capital of Ontario. It is very well known for its historical sites, many wineries (tours and tastings) as well as one of Canada’s premier theatre festivals, the Shaw Festival.

All potential participants (including members of the organizing committee and invited speakers) are required to submit the Application / Request for Next Mailing Form so that we can be certain we have your correct address information.