Each year, the Adhesion Society conducts a research competition for students, the objectives being to promote the field of adhesion and to encourage student participation in the Annual Meeting. The competition is open to anyone past the first year of graduate study who will be enrolled in graduate school at the time of the Adhesion Society's Annual Meeting. In the first part of the competition, students submit a short paper covering their own research. The work may be framed in the context of their advisors' and fellow graduate students' contributions, but must focus on the applicant's own original work. A panel reviews these submissions and the best papers are selected as winners of the Peebles Award. Each Peebles Award winner becomes a participant in the competition for the very prestigious Alan Gent Distinguished Student Paper Award, sponsored by Loctite. A special closed session is held at the Annual Meeting where each student gives a 10-minute oral presentation followed by a Q&A period. The audience consists of other Peebles winners and the evaluation committee. The committee will select and announce the Alan Gent Best Student Paper Award winner at the meeting, with the winner receiving a plaque and a cash prize. The deadline for award competition submissions is November 1, 2005.

Complete details on the competition are available on the Adhesion Society's website, http://www.adhesionsociety.org , or from the Student Awards Chairperson, Steve McKnight, at shm@arl.army.mil .