Introduction

The 43rd IUPAC World Polymer Congress, 'Macro2010', was the latest in the series of the biennial meetings of the IUPAC Polymer Division. The series has been running for several decades and is the largest international multi-symposium conference dedicated to all aspects of polymer science and engineering.

Macro2010 was organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and hosted by the Pure and Applied Macromolecular Chemistry Group (Macro Group UK), a joint interest group of the RSC and the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).

Themes

Macro2010 had an overall focus on Polymer Science in the Service of Society.

Themes included:

• Delivering New Polymers for Service in Society: Advances in Polymer Chemistry
• Molecular to Macroscopic Behaviour of Polymers
• Sustainability: Renewable Resources and Environmentally-Friendly Polymers
• Polymers in Support of Life
• Functional Polymers for Electronics, Energy and Analysis
• Polymer Science in Everyday Life
• Advances in Colloidal and Nanosize Polymer Materials
• Young Polymer Scientists: Contributions, Nurturing and Networking   

Details of the symposia within each of these eight themes and information on plenary speakers is available from the scientific programme pages of the website. 

As well as the oral presentations, an important part of the congress was the poster sessions - these presented a great opportunity to network and present your work. Dedicated poster sessions associated with the symposia ran on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons of the congress.