The first day of the Milan Polymer Days International Congress - MIPOL2021, virtual edition, has begun at 09.30 AM, with a brief welcome speech by the congress chair, Prof. Elisabetta Ranucci. She has remembered that the mission of the Milan Polymer Days congresses is to provide an international forum for discussing the results of scientific research in all disciplines of polymer science and technology.

She has subsequently introduced the structure of the congress. In particular, the novelty of the current virtual edition is that the 1st day was entirely dedicated to the poster session. This session has indeed consisted of short oral presentations followed by a discussion with the public. The aim was to give all poster presenters, especially young scientists, the opportunity to present the results of their research to a vast public and to freely interact with each other.

The congress chair has reminded that a page of the MIPOL2021 website has been dedicated to the poster exhibition, so that also attendees who were unable to attend the poster session have the possibility to view poster communications. The young scientists participating in the Best Poster Award Competition will be evaluated by a Jury made up of nine eminent scientists who have agreed to act as moderators and take responsibility for selecting the three best poster communications. The selection criteria were: a) quality of research; b) quality of presentation; c) knowledge of the subject, as demonstrated by the discussion with the jury members. The three winners will be awarded at the end of the congress.

According to the program, the morning presentations took place in a single session, while in the afternoon two parallel sessions took place in different virtual rooms. Attendees could obviously move from one room to the other at will. Each session was divided in three sub-sessions, each chaired by a different senior scientist, also acting as jury member.

Overall, 36 poster communications have been released, with contributions covering different hot topics, namely: nanomedicine, bioactive polymers, biopolymers, green chemistry, synthesis of complex molecular architectures; polymer and the environment; polymers and nanocomposites for food preservation; flame retardants; polymer composites and biocomposites; polymers for engineering applications. Participants were from different countries, including, besides Italy, Belgium, France, India, Mexico, Poland and Spain.

The presentations ran smoothly and were followed by interesting discussions that involved the jury members as well as other senior participants. All the topics seem to have aroused great interest. Technical connection problems prevented a few Indian poster presenters from connecting.

At 06:10, the Jury Members met to share their evaluations on the presentations by the Young Scientist and choose the best poster communications. Their decision will be disclosed on July 8th at the end of the congress. We are grateful for the commitment of our excellent Jury Members, their dedication and professionalism. We are also proud of the participation of so many smart young scientists and impressed by the competence and self-confidence with which most of them presented their research works.