ACS President-Recommended Event during the ACS Fall 2025: CME-NASA: Elevating Polymer Chemistry to New Heights-Polymers for Future Space Missions. This JOINT 068 event has a sponsoring Division (POLY) and Committee (COMSCI).
8/18 Day 1 AM – NASA and Academia. Venue: Hall D – Room 10 (Walter E. Washington Convention Center).
8/18 Day 1 PM – 2025 CME PMSE Students & Mentor Awards. Venue: Hall D – Room 10 (Walter E. Washington Convention Center). There will be talks by the winning teams from Stanford University and ETH Zurich.
8/19 Day 2 AM – CME Lectures. Featuring Nobel Laureate Moungi Bawendi, Argonne Director Paul Kearns, PPG CTO David Bem, and other distinguished speakers from NASA, Harvard, NREL and CME. Venue: Ballroom C (Walter E. Washington Convention Center).
8/19 Day 2 PM – Earth & Space Sustainability: Industry, Government, Academia.Venue: Hall D – Room 10 (Walter E. Washington Convention Center). Session features speakers from ISS National Laboratory, NASA, DuPont, Deloitte, Versalis, Northrop Grumman and NREL.
While the ACS Fall Meeting—featuring over 100 symposia—typically welcomes more than 15,000 participants, this year’s CME symposium, recommended by the ACS President and President-Elect, is expected to remain among the most well-attended, drawing an estimated 1,200 attendees. This impressive turnout underscores the strong interest in the symposium’s distinctive focus and roster of distinguished speakers.
The purpose of this symposium is to bring together industry, academia, and government to enlarge the global STEM talent pool. Sessions will focus on sustainable cutting-edge innovation in the chemical sciences to advance human space travel to the solar system and beyond. Event talks translate research results into new knowledge to improve the lives of people worldwide.
The ACS Fall 2025 Meeting in Washington, DC (www.ACS.org) brings together many of the world’s top Chemists, Chemical Engineers, Physicists, Biochemists, Nanotechnologists and related professionals and students.
This symposium is the result of the collaboration of CME with NASA, the ACS Polymer Chemistry Division (POLY) and the ACS Committee on Science (COMSCI) as the sponsors and the ACS Polymeric Materials: Science & Engineering (PMSE) as a co-sponsor. This ACS President recommended event (PRES) is packed with cutting-edge talks and panel discussions.
This symposium has attracted numerous brilliant new members to the ACS community for its focus on inspirational research, industry, and new career paths. Over 5,000 STEM professionals and students have attended past events. Since 2017, this symposium has been endorsed by all ACS Presidents and the leaders of up to 32 ACS technical divisions.
To help determine the room size and to keep up with schedule changes, speakers, venues and social activities, please register using the button above.
Opening Remarks
Dorothy Phillips
American Chemical Society
2025 President
Rigoberto Hernandez
American Chemical Society
2025 President-Elect John Hopkins Univ. Professor
Honorees Lecturers
Moungi Bawendi
MIT
Nobel Laureate Professor
Paul Kearns
Argonne National Laboratory
Director
Lecturers
James Green
NASA
Former Chief Scientist 2018 STEM Leadership Awardee for Propelling Science
CME Lectures, Day 3 of the 2024 CME NASA Symposium, Sheraton Denver Downtown, Plaza Ballroom F
Nobel Laureate Frances Arnold and CME STEM Leadership Honorees NREL Director Martin Keller and Nobel Laureate Carolyn Bertozzi
CME PMSE Student & Mentor Awards in Polymer Chemistry Science & Engineering. Fr Left: Mentor Andrew Spakowictz and Student Pamela Cai, Student Laura Rijns and Mentor Patricia Dankers.
NASA Sustainability Panel. Fr left: NASA JSC Deputy Chief Scientist Kristen Fabre, Northwestern Prof. Chad Mirkin, NASA HQ Deputy Director Diana Ly and ISS US National Lab CSO Michael Roberts
Industry Sustainability Panel. Fr left: S&P Global Sustainability Deb Ryan, BOTTLE CTO Katrina Knauer, Deloitte Chemicals Bob Kumpf, Northrop Grumman Chief Mission Architect Jon Arenberg and Celanese Director Kevin Fogash
CME STEM Leadership Awards Presentation, fr left: Ksenia Takhistova, Honoree Martin Keller, Honoree Carolyn Bertozzi, George Rodriguez and Shah Karim
CME Lectures. In focus: ACS 2024 President Mary Carroll
CME Lectures. In front row: Nobel Laureate Carolyn Bertozzi asks a question to Nobel Laureate Frances Arnold
CME STEM Leadership Award to Nobel Laureate Carolyn Bertozzi for Advancing Diverse Talent
CME STEM Leadership Award to NREL Director Martin Keller for Excellence in Sustainability
CME Symposium Organizers: Shah Karim, George Rodriguez, Ksenia Takhistova and Cristi Stiers
Sheraton Denver Lobby Fireplace. From left: Northrop Grumman Mission Architect Jon Arenberg, CME Co-Chair Shah karim and CME NASA Symposium Founder George Rodriguez.
CME PMSE Student & Mentor Awards in Polymer Chemistry Science & Engineering. Fr left: Stanford team Andrew Spakowictz and Pamela Cai, and TU Eindhoven team Laura Rijns and Patricia Dankers.
CME PMSE Student & Mentor Awards. Fr Left: George Rodriguez, LaShanda Korley, Honorees Andrew. Spakowictz, Pamela Cai, Laura Rijns, Patricia Dankers; Ksenia Takhistova and Mike Hore.
