News

The Long Research Group’s most recent manuscript, Synthesis and Characterization of Isocyanate-free Polyureas, has been accepted to Green Chemistry. Search for DOI: 10.1039/C7GC02996A, or go to the Publications page on this website to read the latest.

Dr. Herzberger and Emily Wilts won one of the three VT Center for Drug Discovery Poster Session Awards at this year’s event. Their poster title was “From Acid Cleavable Network Scaffolds To Water-Soluble 3D Printed Polymers.”

Dr. Long was featured as the invited speaker for the Distinguished Polymer Lecturer Series at Pittsburg State University, hosted by Prof. Peter Dvornic. Dr. Long gave two seminar talks during his three-day visit to the University, located in Pittsburg, Kansas. Click on the image below to read the article featured in Pittsburg State’s news!!

Our MII-affiliated student engineering team has created a customized 3D printed golf grip that uniquely conforms to individual golfer’s hands to guide correct placement each time they pick up a club. Students involved include Camden Chatham (co-advised by Dr. Williams and Dr. Long), Jacob Fallon (Dr. Bortner), Eric Gilmer (Dr. Bortner), and Andy Cohen (undergraduate student). Read more about it by clicking on the image below.

Dr. Long appointed the new Editor-in-Chief for Polymer International (Wiley) for 2018, replacing Kurt Geckeler. As he geared up for his appointment, he shared an open letter to the PI community – we are excited to see growth and expansion for PI under his leadership. Congratulations, Dr. Long! Read his letter by clicking on the image below.

Dr. Long’s and Dr. Williams’ work on printing Kapton (C) was featured on TechBriefs recently. Click on the image below to read the article online!

Dr. Long and Dr. Williams featured on NPR talking about their efforts (and huge success) on 3D printing “Kapton.” Check out their interview by clicking on the image below.

Dr. Long received his first NIH grant as a co-PI with UVA colleague Dr. Tim Showalter. The grant is titled “Self-expanding hydrogel for pelvic brachytherapy: a novel method for vaginal packing and customized radiation therapy.” Congratulations, Dr. Long and Dr. Showalter!

Dr. Long, Justin Sirrine and Dr. Carfagna (in addition to frequent collaborators Dr. Williams and his student Viswanath) are featured on VT News!! Click on the image below to read the article on novel 3D printed high-performance polymers that could be used in space!!

Congratulations to Ryan Mondschein and Mingtao Chen for winning awards for their presentations at the ACS Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. Ryan was awarded the 2017 Eastman Chemical Student Award in Applied Polymer Science and Mingtao was awarded the Outstanding POLY Poster Award. Well done!

After highly successful few days at the ACS meeting in Washington, DC, The Long Research Group returned to Blacksburg revitalized for the start of the semester. Looking forward to new collaborations and continued output from the The Long Research Group team members! Check out some highlights from the ACS meeting in the Image Carousel below.

The Long Research Group’s REU student James Brown delivered an excellent presentation, finishing off a whirlwind 10-week REU Program (hosted by MII). Congratulations to James on completing an excellent project, to Dr. Herzberger for being a stellar mentor, to Dr. Long and the rest of The Group for providing valuable support and guidance.

All members of The Long Research Group will be attending the ACS Meeting in Washington, DC this month. We have 23 presentations throughout the conference – check out the agenda on the ACS website, or take a look at the publications page to see presentation material.

Congratulations to Group members Allison, Ryan, Katie, Nick, Phil, Joe, Ali, and Maruti all have new publications this summer! See the Publications page for a complete list.

Katie Valentine, Emily Wilts and Dr. Kristie Dorfler head to the Science Museum of Western Virginia to teach K-5th grade girls about chemistry and crystallography. Check out some pictures below:

Congrats to Dr. Long, Dr. Moon (former post doc), Joe Dennis (former student), Allison Pekkanen (former student), and current student Ryan Mondschein on their two recent publications: ‘Thiol-Michael ‘Click’ Hydrogels as an Imageable Packing Material for Cancer Therapy’ in Polymer – and – ‘Synthesis of Polysulfone-Containing Poly(butylene terephthalate) Segmented Block Copolymers: Influence of Segment Length on Thermomechanical Performance’ in Macromolecules.

Check out the latest inside cover of Polymer Chemistry. It’s for Ryan’s, Dr. Long’s and Dr. Moon’s paper, which was published a few months ago. Well done, Ryan, who crafted the image!

Congrats to Ryan and Dr. Long on their recently published paper “Polymer structure-property requirements for stereolithographic 3D printing of soft tissue engineering scaffolds” in Biomaterials. Nice!

Dr. Long is featured in a video by SelectScience/Waters on MII and the facilities. Check out this great promotional piece that talks a little about what we do (copy and paste this URL in a new browser window): http://bit.ly/2qAdU1d

Congratulations to Dr. Dennis and Dr. Pekkanen for successfully defending their PhD. Joe will be starting a new job at IBM Almaden and Allison will be starting at Booz-Allen-Hamilton as a Biological Senior Consultant. Good luck!

Congrats to Joe Dennis on the acceptance of “Influence of Cyclobutane Segments in Cycloaliphatic Decahydronaphthalene-containing Copolyesters” to High Performance Polymers.

Congrats to Allison Pekkanen and Dr. Long on the publication of their paper titled “Poly(ether ester) Ionomers as Water-Soluble Polymers for Material
Extrusion Additive Manufacturing Processes” in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.

Listen to Dr. Long on PULSE OF THE PLANET, which aired March 14-17. 2017. Go to: https://www.pulseplanet.com/dailyprogram/

Congrats to Nick, Ryan and Dr. Long on the publication of their paper titled “Poly (β-thioesters) Containing Monodisperse Oxamide Hard Segments Using a Chemoselective Thiol-Michael Addition Reaction” in Polymer Chemistry.

Dr. Long and Allison Pekkanen gave presentations at the 40th Anniversary Adhesion Society Conference in St. Petersburg, FL.

“Interaction parameters for the uptake of sulfur mustard mimics into polyurethane films”, a manuscript co-authored by Dr. Long and Justin Sirrine, was accepted to Progress in Organic Coatings!

Dr. Long gave an invited presentation at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) conference in Saudi Arabia, “Polymers – Designing Macromolecules for Applications”. Justin Sirrine and Joe Dennis gave poster presentations titled “Functional siloxanes for mask projection microstereolithography (MPμSL): photo-activated chain extension and crosslinking” and “High Tg polyesters as potential BPA-polycarbonate replacements”.

Congrats to Allison Pekkanen, Ryan Mondschein and Dr. Long on their article “Characterization of peptide coatings adhered to synthetic fibers: A versatile model for peptide nucleic acids” in International Journal of Adhesion and Adhesives.

Congrats to Dr. Long on his article “Reaction: Benign by Design Demands Innovation” in Chem.

Dr. Long was interviewed by Jim Metzner of Pulse of the Planet, and featured on NPR! On it, he talks about microplastics and their effect on the ocean and environment. Check it out at www.pulseplanet.com!