On July 8th, the 3rd and last day of the Milan Polymer Days International Congress - MIPOL2021, virtual edition, started at 09.30 AM. The morning sessions included one keynote, six invited lectures and one oral communication, whereas the afternoon sessions included one keynote, three invited lectures and two oral presentations. The presentations ran smoothly and were in any case followed by interesting discussions that involved both the chairpersons and the general public. All the topics appear to have aroused great interest.

At the end of the 9th oral session, at 04:00 PM, Professor Carmine Capacchione, from the University of Salerno, Italy, announced the winners of the Young Scientist Best Poster Award competition on behalf of the Evaluation Committee. First, he stated that, due to the large number of excellent presentations, selecting the best presentations was a difficult task, so much so that the evaluation committee finally decided to award five prizes instead of three, as originally planned. The winners, listed in alphabetic order, were judged equally excellent.

They were:

Alessandro Beduini, University of Milan, Italy, for the presentation entitled “Polyamidoamines derived from natural amino acids as effective, surface-confined flame retardants of cotton”. Federica Ferruti, University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy, for the presentation entitled “Stimuli-responsive lignin nanoparticles: synthesis, enzymatic reinforcement, and characterization”. Lorenza Maddalena, Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy, for the presentation entitled “Fundamental aspects and gas-barrier applications of polyelectrolyte-assisted dispersion of reduced graphite oxide nanoplates”. Filippo Moncalvo, Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy, for the presentation entitled “An ATRP “grafting from” approach to control the molecular architecture of protein-polymer conjugates”. Silvia Voci, University of Catanzaro “Magna Græcia”, Italy, for the presentation entitled “Brij O2-stabilized gliadin-based nanoparticles: physico-chemical properties and in vitro cytotoxicity.”

After the announcement of the award winners, Professor Elisabetta Ranucci, congress chair, made the final remarks on behalf of the Organizing Committee. She summarized the main facts and figures related to the congress, that is, 100 participants, 32 oral presentations, including 4 keynotes and 19 invited lectures, 41 poster presentations, 5 prize, 10 different countries represented, that is Belgium, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and UK. She reminded that the topics covered were:

• Polymeric biomaterials
• Polymers in nanomedicine
• Bioactive polymers
• Modeling of biopolymer structures
• Polymer and the environment: green chemistry, synthesis of polymers from renewable sources; nanocomposites from agro waste; microplastics
• Synthesis of complex macromolecular architectures
• Nanocomposites
• Polymeric flame retardants
• Polymer processing
• Advanced characterization of polymers.

On behalf of the Organizing Committee, she congratulated all speakers and poster presenters for the quality of their contributions and thanked all sponsors and supporters, including the Italian Society of Chemistry and the University of Milan, which made it possible to make the Milan Polymer Days congress a reality. She finally thanked all fantastic colleagues of the Scientific Committee, the chairpersons, the members of the Evaluation Committee of the Poster Award Competition for making the MIPOL2021 congress a success.

The Organizing Committee once again thanked all the participants and invited them all to participate in the next edition of the Milan Polymer Days which will hopefully be held in person in Milan.