Wei Zhang, graduate student in the lab of Lian Yu, professor in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Division, was one of three outstanding young polymer scientists awarded the 2015 Journal of Polymer Science poster prize for the Division of Polymer Physics (DPOLY) at the March American Physical Society (APS) meeting.

Zhang’s poster entitled, “Surface Self-Diffusion of Molecular Glasses Including Short-Chain Polystyrenes,” demonstrates the fast surface diffusion of small-molecule organic glasses supports the fast surface crystal growth of amorphous drugs and the formation of stable glasses by vapor deposition. In addition, it showed that at the same bulk mobility, the surface diffusion of glasses depends on the intermolecular forces.

A five person committee reviewed the posters in the DPOLY section and students were given five minutes to present their posters to the committee. The selection of Zhang’s research illustrates the high-quality research within the School of Pharmacy, with impact not only on health science, but also on physical science.