Competition Description

In conjunction with the poster session, The Society of Rheology is sponsoring a poster competition to encourage student and post-doctoral presentations and participation in the meeting and to recognize excellence. To participate in the competition, in addition to normal abstract submission for the poster session (deadline of August 11, 2017), entrants must also submit a PowerPoint-type poster in PDF format by September 15, 2017.

The competition will be divided into two sections: Student (prior to receipt of PhD) and Post-doctoral. A post-doc, as defined by NIH/NSF, is considered to be "An individual who has received a doctoral degree (or equivalent) and is engaged in a temporary and defined period of mentored advanced training to enhance the professional skills and research independence needed to pursue his or her chosen career path."

Financial awards will be made to the top entries in each of the divisions at the conclusion of the poster session.

Judging Criteria

A panel of judges will select up to 8 finalists in each section based on the entries, with the final selection of the winner to be made by the judges at the poster session.

Posters will be judged according to the following criteria:

1. Originality of research - 15%
   How novel is the work? Does the author distinguish the work with respect to other ongoing or past work in the same topical area?
    
2. Quality of execution of the work - 30%
   How well thought out were the experiments/simulations/theory? Were data verified and experimental errors eliminated systematically?
    
3. Scientific impact - 30%
   What is the current or potential future impact of the work? Is the context clearly demonstrated?
    
4. Quality of presentation of the work - 25%
   How good are the layout and clarity of poster? Does the author make a lucid, well informed presentation of the work?

Submission Guidelines

Please note that:

• First author must be a student or post-doctoral fellow at the time of the meeting, depending on the section.
    
• First author must attend and be available to discuss the poster at the poster session.
   
• In addition to the normal Web-based abstract submission (by August 11, 2017), a PowerPoint-type poster in PDF format must be uploaded through the Poster Competition Upload Site by September 15, 2017 for the purposes of selection of the finalists. The PDF file should contain no more than 20 slides or panels. All files must be no larger than 3 MB.
   
• To access the Poster Competition Upload Site, you will need the paper ID and password from your abstract submission. Upon completion of the upload, the web browser will display the date and time of upload and a link to view the PDF file. The status of the upload can also be checked by re-entering the website.

The finalists will be notified by e-mail prior to the meeting.