As a new and exciting field of interdisciplinary macromolecular science and engineering, polymeric materials will have a profound presence in 21st century chemical, pharmaceutical, biomedical, manufacturing, infrastructure, electronic, optical and information technologies. The origin of this field derived from an area of polymer science and engineering encompassing plastic technologies. The field is rapidly expanding to incorporate new interdisciplinary research areas such as biomaterials, macromolecular biology, novel macromolecular structures, environmental macromolecular science and engineering, innovative and nano-fabrications of products, and is translating discoveries into technologies.