Eastman Competition Honors ESF Graduate Research

Chemical company offers awards to students
11/27/2012

The SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) will host the Eastman Chemical Company's annual competition to identify outstanding research by ESF graduate students working with natural polymers.

This year, the competition requires two types of presentations: a non-technical article and a technical poster. The 800-word non-technical article will address the question, "Why does my research matter?" The students will present their technical posters to the judges Dec. 6 during a poster session on the first-floor entry foyer of Baker Laboratory. Students will be available to discuss their posters from 10:30 a.m. to noon or later if necessary. The poster session is open to the public.

Winners will be announced following a participants' lunch. Prizes will be $1,500, $1,000, and $500 for the top three poster/article presentations.

The annual competition, which began in 2006, is part of Eastman's recognition of ESF as a "Focus School" in wood and cellulose chemistry. Eastman has been involved with ESF for many years and was one of the founding sponsors of the Cellulose Research Institute at the college in 1957. Since then the company, one of the nation's 10 largest chemical producers, has continued to hire ESF science and engineering students and support others through summer internships and related programs.