A Cal Poly chemistry professor is among three U.S. university faculty to be awarded the national James Flack Norris Award for outstanding teaching in chemistry by the American Chemical Society. Dr. Phil Costanzo is being recognized for his work with the American Chemical Society's Macromolecular Alliance for Community Resources & Outreach for achievements in chemistry education and its extensive, sustained impact on the polymer education community.  Costanzo’s work has included broad educational outreach through guidance for K-12 instructors and higher education teachers providing developmental instruction. “There are people who now need to teach polymer science who have never taken a class in polymer science,” Costanzo said. “That can be intimidating. So, we'll help people develop full curriculum at a high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels.”

In modern devices, such as phone screens or advanced sensors, light is often generated by pairs of organic molecules, where one molecule, known as the donor, transmits electrons, and the other, referred to as the acceptor, receives them. An international team of scientists from Kaunas University of Technology, KTU, Lithuania, has, for the first time, observed the luminescence of an excited complex formed by two donor molecules. This discovery opens new possibilities for developing simpler, more efficient, and more sustainable optoelectronic devices.