Padden Award Symposium

Presentations

• Strain-stiffening in photo-clickable bottlebrush hydrogels via crosslink clustering

  Oral-In-person

  March 17, 2026, 12:00 PM – March 17, 2026, 12:12 PM

  Publication: Photo-clickable bottlebrush hydrogels with tissue-mimicking strain-stiffening via crosslink clustering

  Presenters

  • Baiqiang Huang

    • University of Virginia

  Authors

  • Baiqiang Huang

    • University of Virginia

  • Liheng Cai

    • University of Virginia

  View abstract →

• Are Neutral Polyzwitterions Really Neutral? Charge Symmetry Breaking!

  Oral-In-person

  March 17, 2026, 12:12 PM – March 17, 2026, 12:24 PM

  Publication: Lee, Y., & Muthukumar, M. (2025). Charge symmetry breaking in neutral polyzwitterions. Nature Communications, 16, 3507.
  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58928-7

  Presenters

  • Yeseul Lee

    • University of Massachusetts, Amherst

  Authors

  • Yeseul Lee

    • University of Massachusetts, Amherst

  • Murugappan Muthukumar

    • University of Massachusetts Amherst

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• Effect of Methyl Substitution Pattern on Methylcellulose Solution Behavior and Multiscale Structure 

  Oral-In-person

  March 17, 2026, 12:24 PM – March 17, 2026, 12:36 PM

  Publication: Kronenberger, S.; Jayaraman, A. Effect of Methylcellulose Chain Design on Gelation and Fibril Structure Using Coarse-Grained Modeling. Chem. Mater. 2025, 37 (13), 4818–4831. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.5c00862.

  Presenters

  • Stephen Kronenberger

    • University of Delaware

  Authors

  • Stephen Kronenberger

    • University of Delaware

  • Arthi Jayaraman

    • University of Delaware

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• Arrested and delayed rupture of elastomers

  Oral-In-person

  March 17, 2026, 12:36 PM – March 17, 2026, 12:48 PM

  Publication: [1] Perspective in Macromolecules (Fracture behavior of polymers in plastic and elastomeric states) 57, 3875 (2024).

  Presenters

  • Asal YousefiSiavoshani

    • University of Akron

  Authors

  • Asal YousefiSiavoshani

    • University of Akron

  • Shi-Qing Wang

    • University of Akron

  • Ming-Chi Wang

  • Junpeng Wang

  • Chen Wang

  • Aanchal Jaisingh

  View abstract →

• When Solvent Matters: Fundamental Phase Reversals in Polyelectrolyte Coacervation

  Oral-In-person

  March 17, 2026, 12:48 PM – March 17, 2026, 1:00 PM

  Presenters

  • Pierre Walker

    • Caltech

  Authors

  • Pierre Walker

    • Caltech

  • Zhen-Gang Wang

    • Caltech

  View abstract →

• Biomimetic Block Polycatechols Form High Strength Wet Adhesives

  Oral-In-person

  March 17, 2026, 1:00 PM – March 17, 2026, 1:12 PM

  Presenters

  • Fahed Albreiki

    • University of California, Los Angeles

  Authors

  • Fahed Albreiki

    • University of California, Los Angeles

  • Orchid Pyone

  • Helene Do

  • Swaraali Save

  • Samanvaya Srivastava

    • University of California, Los Angeles

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• Elasticity and Fracture of Polymer-like Entangled Network

  Oral-In-person

  March 17, 2026, 1:12 PM – March 17, 2026, 1:24 PM

  Publication: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.17813

  Presenters

  • Jiabin Liu

    • Michigan State University

  Authors

  • Jiabin Liu

    • Michigan State University

  • Juntao Huang

    • University of Delaware

  • Shaoting Lin

    • Michigan State University

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• Reaction/Diffusion Competition Controls Anomalous Vitrimer Relaxation Processes

  Oral-In-person

  March 17, 2026, 1:24 PM – March 17, 2026, 1:36 PM

  Publication: Branham-Ferrari, M., Cheng, S., Sokolov, A.P., & Simmons, D. S. Reaction/Diffusion Competition Drives Anomalous Relaxation of Vitrimers. Preprint at https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2509.19496 (2025).

  Presenters

  • Makayla Branham-Ferrari

    • University of South Florida

  Authors

  • Makayla Branham-Ferrari

    • University of South Florida

  • Shinian Cheng

    • University of Tennessee

  • Alexei Sokolov

    • University of Tennessee

  • David Simmons

    • University of South Florida

  View abstract →

• Roughness-dependent scaling of contact area and separation gap with pressure for glassy polymers

  Oral-In-person

  March 17, 2026, 1:36 PM – March 17, 2026, 1:48 PM

  Publication: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2503087122

  Presenters

  • Shubhendu Kumar

    • The University of Akron

  Authors

  • Shubhendu Kumar

    • The University of Akron

  • Utkarsh Patil

    • University of Akron

  • Stephen Merriman

    • University of Akron

  • Ali Dhinojwala

    • University of Akron

  View abstract →

• Controlling equilibrium swelling of polyampholyte gels using charge sequence

  Oral-In-person

  March 17, 2026, 1:48 PM – March 17, 2026, 2:00 PM

  Publication: Controlling Equilibrium Swelling of Polyampholyte Gels Using Charge Sequence

  Presenters

  • Andrew Wijesekera

    • University of South Carolina

  Authors

  • Andrew Wijesekera

    • University of South Carolina

  • Ting Ge

    • University of South Carolina

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• Leveraging Dynamic Bonds to Probe Equilibrium Topology in Polymer Networks

  Oral-In-person

  March 17, 2026, 2:00 PM – March 17, 2026, 2:12 PM

  Publication: Sen, D.; Zheng, Yu; Olsen, B. D.; Leveraging dynamic bonds to probe equilibrium topology in polymer networks, ACS MacroLetters, 2025, 14, 8, 1169–1174

  Presenters

  • Devosmita Sen

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  Authors

  • Devosmita Sen

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Yu Zheng

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Bradley Olsen

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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• Nanotetrapods Promote Polymer Flow Through Confinement Induced Packing Frustration

  Oral-In-person

  March 17, 2026, 2:12 PM – March 17, 2026, 2:24 PM

  Publication: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63555-3
  Sarkar, Jotypriya, Sachin MB Gautham, Fariyad Ali, Mithun Madhusudanan, Harshit Yadav, Anindya Datta, Tarak K. Patra, Sivasurender Chandran, and Mithun Chowdhury. "Nanotetrapods promote polymer flow through confinement induced packing frustration." Nature Communications 16, no. 1 (2025): 8550.

  Presenters

  • Jotypriya Sarkar

    • Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Maharashtra, India

  Authors

  • Jotypriya Sarkar

    • Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Maharashtra, India

  • Mithun Chowdhury

    • Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

  • Sivasurender Chandran

  • Sachin Gautham

    • Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

  • Tarak Patra

    • Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

  • Fariyad Ali

  • Anindya Dutta

  • Mithun Madhusudanan

  View abstract →