Jill spearheads new conference: PoWER

Polymer Women Empowerment and Research (PoWER) conference was a joint effort by Jill & Prof. Julia Kalow at Northwestern University. Both dreamed of an event to inspire and cultivate community among women and gender minorities investigating polymer science research. With Prof. Helen Tran of Toronto, Prof. Symone Alexander of Auburn, Dr. Sara Orski of NIST, and Dr. Katie Houston of Eastman, they designed the PoWER conference to include scientific talks from industry, academia, and national labs across all career stages; workshops on time management, applying for opportunities, and careers in polymer science; a diversity, equity, and inclusion lunch & learn; lightning talks from graduate students and postdocs; and a poster session.

The inaugural event occurred July 11-12, 2024 at Northwestern University (NU). PoWER would not have been possible without generous sponsorships from ACS POLY and PMSE divisions, 3M, NSF Monet, the Beckman Foundation, the NU Alumnae Fund, NU College of Arts & Sciences, Dow, Craig Hawker, Auburn University, NU MRSEC, and Tosoh.