New funding of up to $196,045 is received from USDA-NIFA for the project Evaluating The Use of Oleic Acid for Reducing Pain And Improving Wound Healing In Male Piglets Following Surgical Castration (in collaboration with Dr. C. Bird, Department of Animal Sciences, NDSU). This work begins on May, 15^th, 2022 and is for two years. This is a new research project aiming developing plant oil-based oleogels and their application for piglets wound healing.

New funding of up to $46,582 is received from North Dakota Corn Utilization Council for the project Single-Component Corn-Based Bioplastics for Food Packaging Applications. This work begins on July,1,2022 and is for one year. This is a new research project targeting new bioplastics from single component polymeric materials based on corn protein and corn oil

New funding of up to $40,762 is received from North Dakota Soybean Council for the project Soy-Based Biodegradable Pressure-Sensitive Adhesives. This work begins on July, 1, 2022 and is for one year. This is a new research project aiming to develop, characterize and test new soy-based pressure-sensitive adhesives for packaging applications in food and health industries.

Tetiana presents her 1s^t year graduate seminar.
Tetiana’s presentation is entitled “Plant Protein-Based Bioplastic Films To Be Used as Degradable Packaging Materials”. This research sponsored by Sonoco Products company BioPowder and North Dakota Soybean Council.

Voronov gave an invited talk entitled Polymeric Materials from Plant Oil-Based Latexes during American Coatings Show 2022, April,5-8 in Indianapolis, IN. At the same meeting, Yehor Polunin presented his research on Modification of Hemicellulose with Polymers based on Acrylic Plant oil-based Monomers.

Fore more details please visit https://american-coatings-show.com

Voronov accepted invitation to speak at American Chemical Society Fall meeting in Chicago, IL, August, 21 – 25, 2022. He is planning to give a presentation during 8^th symposium on Green Polymer Chemistry. The goals of this symposium are to provide updates of the latest developments from active laboratories in the world and to stimulate discussions of the challenges and opportunities of this exciting area. More details can be found at

https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/meetings/

Congratulations on your graduation, Kristen!

Thank you for your hard work and all the best in your professional career.

Former member of our group Zoriana Demchuk is awarded 2021 Industrial Oil Products Division of American Oil Chemists Society (AOCS) Student Excellence Award for demonstrating her academic achievements and extracurricular accomplishments in the professional field.  The award consists of a certificate, a US $500 honorarium and an award lecture as part of the 2021 AOCS Annual Meeting and Expo. Zoriana’s presentation is entitled The Sustainable Synthesis of Monomers and Latex Polymers Derived from Renewable Plant Oils and will be presented online during 2021 AOCS Annual Meeting, May, 3-14.

Zoriana Demchuk graduated with PhD degree in November, 2020 and is currently working as Postdoctoral Research Associate in Soft Materials Group of Chemical Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Knoxville, TN.

More details can be found https://annualmeeting.aocs.org

Congratulations, Zoriana, to your AOCS Student Excellence Award!

Andriy serves as a program reviewer for California Polytechnic University Polymers and Coatings Master of Science Program. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the review process occurred virtually over (November 16^th – 19^th, 2020. The review committee also consisted of Dr. Dahlia Amato from Saint-Gobain and Dr. Ajay Kathuria, Industrial Technology and Packaging Department at California Polytechnic University.

Former graduate student Zoriana Demchuk who obtained PhD in Coatings and Polymeric Materials and graduated in November, 2020 began new job at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Knoxville, TN as Postdoctoral Research Associate.

Good luck with your new job and thank you, Zoriana!

Zoriana Demchuk successfully defended her PhD dissertation entitled “The Effect of Fatty Acid Unsaturation on Properties and Performance of Monomers and Latex Polymers from Plant Oils”

Zoriana obtained her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Technology and Engineering in 2012, Master of Science in Chemical Technology of Food Additives in 2013, both from Lviv Polytechnic National University in Ukraine, and joined our group in August 2015.

Congratulations on her successful defense!

Voronov chaired 6^th NewTech World Congress organized online on August, 19-21. This congress aims to provide opportunities to the scientists, researchers, industrial engineers, and university students to present their research achievements and to develop new collaborations and partnerships with experts in the field of new technologies. Congress is composed of 4 conferences. Each conference consists of an individual and separate theme, but they share considerable overlap, which prompted the organization of this congress. The conferences are ICNFA (International Conference on Nanotechnology: Fundamentals and Applications), ICEPR (International Conference on Environmental Pollution and Remediation), ICBB (International Conference on Biotechnology and Bioengineering) and ICERT (International Conference on Energy Research and Technology).

Next upcoming 7^th NewTech World Congress is planned to be organized online on August, 5-7, 2021. For more information, please visit https://newtechcongress.com

In collaboration with scientists from Department of Organic Chemistry of Lviv Polytechnic National University in Lviv, Ukraine, three presentations (oral and two posters) are presented at international conference on Food chemistry. Modern methods for production of food, food additives and packaging materials, organized online on October 7-9, 2020.Presentation on Plant Oil-Based Latex Adhesives for Packaging Applications (authors Kirianchuk, V. ,Demchuk Z., Bon I., Nichols J., Pourhashem G., Voronov A., Voronov S.) is an oral presentation, while poster presentations are entitled   Polymeric Materials from High-Oleic Sunflower Oil-Based Acrylic Monomer  (Kirianchuk,V., Demchuk,Z., Domnich,B., Budishevska,O., Voronov,A., Voronov, S.) and Synthesis and Features of Plant Oil-Based Latexes (Kirianchuk,V., Demchuk,Z., Voronov,A., Voronov, S.). For more details, please visit http://science.lpnu.ua/fcfpap-2020