NDSU coatings and polymeric materials (CPM) graduate assistants Yehor Polunin and Bohdan Domnich were recently recognized for their oral presentations at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Great Lakes Regional Meeting.

The pair were recognized for their presentations in the sustainable polymers category. Entitled “High-Oleic Sunflower Oil-Based Vinyl Monomer in Latex Polymers Synthesis,” and “Biobased Latexes from 3-Allyl-5-vinylveratrole and High Oleic Soybean Oil-based Acrylic Monomer,” both studies involved utilizing biocompatible materials to reduce negative environmental and health impacts in the creation of polymeric materials.

Polunin is a third year graduate assistant in NDSU CPM professor Andriy Voronov’s group at NDSU. Domnich graduated from Lviv Polytechnic National University in Ukraine and will join Voronov’s research group as a CPM graduate assistant at NDSU this fall.

Both Polunin and Domnich first had the opportunity to work with NDSU researchers as participants in the annual coatings and polymeric materials summer undergraduate research experience program (USURE). USURE offers research awards for Ukrainian students majoring in food chemistry, chemical engineering, and other related fields and participating students work alongside NDSU researchers for 10 weeks on polymer science field projects.

NDSU and Lviv Polytechnic National University signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2018 that would allow Ukrainian students to participate in the summer research. Since that time, eight students have participated in the summer program.

ACS Great Lakes is one of more than 200 regional branches run by the organization. The annual meeting was held in June, 2021.