“With support from the WIC+ travel grant, I was fortunate to be able to attend the ACS Spring 2026 Meeting in Atlanta, GA. There, I presented a poster on my work on developing novel porous poly(aryl pyrazolium) polyelectrolytes for application as anion exchange membranes for alkaline water electrolyzers and H2 fuel cells. Having focused most of my efforts so far on developing the synthetic route to my monomer and polymers, it was extremely valuable to discuss methods for testing the materials and evaluating their performance with experts in the field. I also met several potential collaborators at the poster sessions, whose expertise ranged from electrochemical techniques for polyelectrolyte testing to NMR methods for tracking ion conduction in polymers. It was encouraging to see other scientists interested in my work and to make connections that may help further the project and expand its impact. In addition to presenting my own work, I was very grateful for the opportunity to learn from talks that were adjacent to my project, as well as those in other topics in materials chemistry that generally interest me, including supramolecular assemblies and semiconducting polymers. Finally, I was happy to meet several undergraduate students at the poster sessions and encourage them to pursue further training as researchers. Many thanks to WIC+ and the travel grant sponsors for enabling this opportunity!”