The Adhesion Society is pleased that Michelin Americas Research and Development Corporation continues to sponsor the Best Poster Award in conjunction with the Society's Annual Meeting. A $1000 cash prize and a plaque is awarded to the presenter of the winning poster.

Since 1977, The Adhesion Society has provided a forum to bring together in a single group all of the disciplines which relate to the science of adhesion.  The Society fosters communication between researchers in mechanics, synthetic chemistry, surface science, polymer physics, material science, and biology.  With members almost equally drawn from industry and academia, it also encourages the exchange of problems and solutions between those who share common scientific interests. 

Over the years, the program for our Annual Meeting has grown from single sessions with approximately 30 oral presentations, to the present parallel session program which includes over 150 papers.  In addition to the oral presentations, there is also an active poster session program which yearly includes more than 35 poster presentations.  The poster session is an integral part of the Society’s annual meeting.  With the short time available for each oral presentation, the poster session provides an excellent forum for more extended discussion of technical issues and interrelationships.    Since the Society draws together members of several academic disciplines, this is a critical part of the meeting, for it is the birthplace of the interactions that foster advances in the science of adhesion.

From left to right:  Stephanie Nesbitt, Aline Granier (NIST) and Susan Ward.

For industrial attendees it provides the additional benefit of an introduction to the work of graduate students from universities around the world.  Through their discussions with students (and other presenters), industrial attendees can identify on-campus research that is closely allied with their needs and interests, and also spot emerging talent they may wish to hire into their company.

In the past few years, the Society has attempted to attract even more quality posters by instituting a Best Poster Award.  This award is intended to reward the presenters for the extra effort it takes to prepare a top caliber presentation.  Through this mechanism we hope to encourage an even higher caliber of presentation.

The criteria for the Best Poster Award are:

	Clarity of submitted abstract
	Importance of the work
	Novelty of the work
	Level of completion of the work
	Ability of the presenter to explain the work