Less than two months from the end of the "Solid Rock" operation, the annual meeting of the PPS took place in Tel Aviv between October 19th  to 23rd , giving tribute to the research and development of polymers and plasticss in Israel.

The PPS is comprised mainly of researchers and engineers from the academia and industrial research centers from all over the world and is meeting annually in various countries by "travelling" from city to city. The decision to hold the conference in Israel was approved by the PPS international committee 3 years ago, following elimination of opposition from representatives who did not like the idea.

The conference was attended by 63 participants from abroad that gathered from all over the world: from Europe (Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Sweden, Estonia, Russia, Poland, Germany, Austria and Greece)` from North America (Canada, United States), from South America (Brazil), from the Far East (China, South Korea, Taiwan) and even Australia.

In addition, more than 190 researches from the academic and research community in Israel represented the Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, Ben Gurion University, Weizmann Institute and Shenkar, complemented with researchers from industrial and defense research and development centers.

The Conference centered on a few subjects in the forefront of plastics technology. The major themes were led by six plenary lectures:

• Prof. Krzysztof Matyjaszewski from the USA, Wolf Prize Laureate, lectured about his pioneering research of plastics materials having controlled properties for medical and electronic applications.
• Prof. Hossam Haick from the Technion outlined his research and development efforts comprising nanotechnology elements and processing for artificial skin having sensing abilities.
• Prof. Reshef Tenne for the Weizmann Institute summarized his world frontier research for the production of inorganic nanoparticles for applications in lubricants and polymer nanocomposites.
• Prof. Chris Macosco for the USA reviewed his innovative work on the simultaneous interfacial reactions  and plastics manufacturing.
• Prof. Joachim Kohn from the USA described his projects of the last decade related to preparation of bio-polymers for medical applications.
• A special session was dedicated to Prof. Zehev Tadmor, the former Technion President and one of the PPS founders, for his innovative and pioneering research in plastics processing.

The staff of the Plastics Engineering department took and active part in both lecturing and supervising the various sessions. Special recognition should be attributed to 6 of the graduate students in the department that presented their research thesis and has a chance to be exposed to the international community.

All the graduate students contributed to the organization of the conference in registration and guiding the visitors.

The Chairman of the conference was Prof. Samuel Kenig and the co-chairmen of the scientific committee were prof. Hanna Dodiuk and Prof. Amos Ophir. Israeli as well as foreign companies contributed and sponsored some of the activities of the conference. Among them Keter Plastics the largest plastics company in Israel and Nietzsch the major German equipment manufacturers.

The fact that it was the first conference of its kind in Israel, the achievements of the industry and academia in Israel were exposed to leaders of the industry and academia abroad. This encounter resulted in a number of collaborations that were finalized during the conference. The conference positioned Israel and specifically Shenkar as a solid base for high level of scientific collaborative research and development projects.

The feedbacks from the participants in the conference were very enthusiastic. Everyone praised the high technical level, the effective organization and the gastronomic arrangements, which are the major components of a scientific conference lasting a few days.

On the basis of the success of the conference, the executives of the PPS approached the organizing committee with the proposal to hold the 2018-2019 PPS annual meeting in Israel, leaving us with a good taste and future expectations!

(Photo: Achikam Ben-Yosef; From right to left: Dr. Victor Wiess, Deputy Chief Scientist, Ministry of Science & Technology, Prof. Samuel Kenig- Dean of Engineering, Shenkar; Prof. Voytek Gutowski, Research Fellow, CISRO Australia; Prof. Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, Wolf Laureate, Carnegie Mellon University, USA; Prof. Hanna Dodiuk Head of Department of Polymers &  Plastics Engineering)