Introducing Our PLENARY Speakers

The research of Bert Meijer focuses on the design, synthesis, characterization and possible applications of supramolecular systems with unprecedented properties and functions. It is founded on the principles of synthetic organic and polymer chemistry and aims at finding solutions to challenges in materials science and life sciences. Throughout his career Bert Meijer has explored and developed functional supramolecular polymers as a new class of materials. Via advanced molecular design and synthesis he has realized systems in which monomeric units self-assemble into long supramolecular polymeric chains, resulting in materials displaying unique dynamic properties that were thought to be exclusively reserved for macromolecules. Current research in the Meijer lab focuses on fundamental studies to understand complex multi-component supramolecular systems including the assembly behavior into supramolecular polymers. These insights are used to explore the potential use of supramolecular polymers as mimics of biological tissue, using a modular approach that allows for easy adjustment of their dynamics to external stimuli. Moreover, supramolecular materials are studied to create new avenues for adaptive soft materials and materials for nanotechnology and energy.

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Martina Stenzel studied chemistry at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, before completing her PhD in 1999 at the Institute of Applied Macromolecular Chemistry, University of Stuttgart, Germany. She started as a postdoctoral fellow at UNSW in 1999 and is now a full Professor in the school of chemistry as well as co-director of the Center for Advanced Macromolecular Design (CAMD)Her research interest is focused on the synthesis of functional nanoparticles for drug delivery applications. Martina Stenzel published more than 300 peer reviewed papers mainly on polymer and nanoparticle design.

She is scientific editor of Materials Horizons and serves currently on a range of editorial boards. She received a range of awards including the 2011 Le Fèvre Memorial Prize of the Australian Academy of Science and the H.G.Smith Medal. In 2018, Martina has been elected as a fellow to the Australian Academy of Science and is currently the chair of the National Chemistry Committee of the Academy.

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Natalie Stingelin (Stutzmann) FRSC is a Full Professor of Materials Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology, with prior positions at Imperial College London; the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge; Queen Mary University of London, the Philips Research Laboratories, Eindhoven; and ETH Zürich. She was awarded a Chaire Internationale Associée by the Excellence Initiative of the Université de Bordeaux (2016); the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining’s Rosenhain Medal and Prize (2014); and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) President’s International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI) Award for Visiting Scientists (2015). While at Imperial College, she was recipient of a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants, as well as an ERC Proof of Concept grant. She was the Chair of the 2016 Gordon Conference on ‘Electronic Processes in Organic Materials’ and the Zing conference on ‘Organic Semiconductors’. In 2018, she organized the 14^th edition of the International Conference of Organic Electronics (ICOE). She has published >180 papers in the area of organic electronics & photonics, bioelectronics, physical chemistry of organic functional materials, and smart inorganic/organic hybrid systems.

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Patrick Stayton serves as the Distinguished Career Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington. He received his B.S. in Biology (summa cum laude, Chemistry minor) from Illinois State University, his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois, and was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, also at the University of Illinois.

Dr. Staytonis the founding Director of the Institute for Molecular Engineering and Sciences(http://www.moles.washington.edu), and the Center for Intracellular Delivery of Biologics.His owneclectic research group works at the interface of fundamental molecular science and applied molecular bioengineering. His laboratory develops new materials for application to unmet medical needs in the therapeutics, diagnostics, and regenerative medicine fields. He has published over 250scientific papers. Dr. Stayton has a strong interest in translating the group’s research, has been awarded many patents, and is a co-founder of the startup companies Jewel Biotherapeutics based their cell and drugamer therapy work, PhaseRxInc. based on his group’s biologic drug delivery work, and Nexgenia Inc. based on their biopharma manufacturing technologies.

Dr. Stayton has been elected as a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and has been the recipient of the Clemson Award from the Society For Biomaterials and the CRS-Cygnus Recognition Award from the Controlled Release Society. He servedas Co-Chair of the Gordon Conference on Drug Carriers in Medicine and Biology in 2010. He has also been awarded the College of Engineering’s Faculty Innovator Award, the Distinguished Teacher and Mentor Award from the Department of Bioengineering, and an Honorary Award from the College of Engineering’s Minority Science and Engineering Program. He has also been elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences. Many graduate students and postdoctoral fellows trained in his lab and gone on to impactful academic and industry careers.

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Dr Vignolini is currently working in the chemistry department at the University of Cambridge. Dr Vignolini was recently awarded an ERC Starting Grant to study how we can use natural materials to fabricate novel photonic structures. By studying their assembly and optical response. Inspired by nature, we develop tools to fabricate artificial photonic structures using natural materials. The outcome of our research activity will pave the way to the production of low cost, biodegradable novel materials, which could replace traditional, potentially hazardous colorants used industrially for different applications, such as cosmetics, textiles and security labelling.

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Christopher Barner-Kowollik, an Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Fellow, received a PhD in Physical Chemistry (Göttingen University). After postdoctoral research and academic positions at the Centre for Advanced Macromolecular Design at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, he was appointed Full Professor of Polymer Chemistry as an ARC Professorial Fellow in 2006. From 2008 to 2017 he held the chair for Macromolecular Chemistry at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and is currently Professor of Materials Science at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) with an adjunct appointment at the KIT. His research interests include macromolecular precision design in solution and on surfaces via rapid and wavelength-orthogonal light-induced methodologies, advanced functional photoresists for 3D laser lithography, biomimetic materials, the design of hybrid and adaptive polymer materials at the interface of polymer chemistry and (bio)materials science, advanced macromolecular characterization via high resolution hyphenated mass spectrometric techniques and mechanistic investigations into photochemical processes. Prof. Barner-Kowollik has delivered over 200 keynote and plenary lectures, published over 600 peer reviewed papers and received numerous awards for this work, most recently the Erwin-Schrödinger Award of the Helmholtz Association for his work on 3D printing for biological applications. He is member of several editorial boards and editor-in-chief of the journal Polymer Chemistry (Royal Society of Chemistry).

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Brett Fors is the Assistant Professor for the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Cornell University. He completed a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science, Montana State UniversityFors’ research currently focuses on the development of new synthetic methods and catalyst systems to control polymer architecture, composition, and function. Under this general theme, three different areas of research will be pursued. First, new systems will be developed that will enable precise regulation over catalyst reactivity in situ with light. Second, new strategies for the synthesis of conjugated polymers from the parent C–H based monomers will be investigated. Lastly, new catalyst systems will be explored for photomediated radical polymerizations.

Dr Kazuo Sakurai completed a PhD in Polymer Science, Department of Science, Osaka University. Since 2001, Dr Sakurai worked at The University of Kitakyushu as a Professor in the Department of Life and Environment Engineering. His current research focuses on the characterization of Polysaccharide/DNA complexes and its application to gene delivery, synthesis and characterization of novel cationic liposome for plasmid DNA delivery and synchrotron small-angle X-ray　scattering from DNA complexes.

AndréGröschel is the Junior Professor for the Department of Chemistry at the University of Duisberg-Essen. He opened the Gröschel Lab where they are mostly interested in the synthesis of functional block copolymers and other polymer architectures. These form basic structural elements for most of our self-assembly projects. We aim to develop synthetic protocols for ABC triblock terpolymers suited for self-assembly in aqueous solutions. We utilize controlled radical polymerization techniques such as ATRP and RAFT to control block length and polymer composition for the predictive self-assembly of shapes inner morphology of superstructures. Together these techniques allow the polymerization of almost any monomer functionality.

Professor Hideharu has completed a Masters of Engineering, Yamagata University. He has authored in numerous papers with a particular focus on polymer chemistry; specificallyBenzothiadiazole-based donor–acceptor nanoparticles with solvatochromic and thermoresponsive properties, Reactive and Functional Polymers…

Jenny Pringle is the Associate Professor at Deakin University. She moved to Deakin University in January 2013 to take up a position as Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Frontier Materials. Here, her research focuses on developing new electromaterials for energy generation and storage. She has a particular interest in thermal energy harvesting, using a new type of thermocell that incorporates an ionic liquid electrolyte.

Franck D’Agosto studied chemistry at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie in Mulhouse (France). He completed a PhD in Polymer Chemistry at the joint unit between CNRS and bioMérieux (University of Lyon, France) before working at the University of Sydney (Australia) as a postdoctoral fellow in the Key Center for Polymer Colloids. Since 2002, he has been a researcher at the CNRS in the Chemistry and Process of Polymerization Team in C2P2 laboratory (Lyon, France). His research interests focus on the control of polymer architectures by the use of different polymerization chemistries – such as catalytic and controlled free radical polymerizations – either performed in solution or in dispersed media.

Dr Muriel Lansalot completed a Ph.d in Polymer Chemistry at Pierre et Marie Curie University, Paris. Her current areas of research are conventional and controlled radical polymerization in dispersed media (emulsion, miniemulsion, dispersion) and Synthesis and characterization of hybrid colloids and nanocomposites using heterophase polymerization techniques (dispersion, emulsion and miniemulsion polymerizations).

Dr Joselito Razal has a PhD in Chemistry, University of Texas. Joselito is currently an ARC Future Fellow and Associate Profesor at Deakin University. His current work focuses on various aspects of materials science with a particular empahsis on discovering new opportunities for organic nanostructured (electro)materials in the areas of energy (i.e. energy storage, conversion and harvesting) and bionics (i.e. the biology-electronics interface).

Neil Cameron is the Monash Warwick Alliance Professor of Polymer Materials. He splits his time between the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Monash University (Australia) and the School of Engineering at the University of Warwick (U.K.). Research activities are directed towards developing novel polymeric biomaterials for application in areas including tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and drug delivery.

Maria Chiara Arno graduated in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology at the University of Padova in 2011. She completed her PhD in 2015 at King’s College London, under the supervision of Prof. Hider, working on the design, synthesis and biological evaluation of hepcidin analogues, sponsored by Vifor Pharma. In March 2015 she joined the Dove and O’Reilly groups to work on the synthesis of polymeric nanoparticles for drug delivery applications. In September 2018 she undertook the role of Group Leader in the Dove laboratory.

Prof. Bruno De Geest graduated as Chemical Engineer in 2003 from Ghent University where he obtained his PhD in pharmaceutical sciences in 2006 on ‘Polyelectrolyte Multilayer Capsules for Pharmaceutical Applications’. For his Phd work he was awarded the graduate student award for pharmaceutical technology from the AAPS and the Andreas Deleenheer award from Ghent University. After 2 years of postdoctoral research at Utrecht University (The Netherlands) he returned to Ghent University at the Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Technology. From October 2012 onwards he is appointed as professor in Biopharmaceutical Technology.

Derek Irvine is a member of the Microwave Process Engineering research group.DJI held various research positions within ICI from 1990 – 2006, when he was appointed as an Associate Professor within the DICE initiative at the University of Nottingham, a joint appointment between the Schools of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. In ICI, DJI established and led strong multidisciplinary teams with their research principally focused upon the application of novel polymer synthesis, catalysis and processing. His work in developing differentiated and commercially viable new products and processes has generated 38 refereed journal publications, 20 patent applications and the commercial launch of 10 products. DJI has had intimate experience of the difficulties of scale up of CRP while in industry and has a track record in overcoming these problems. Examples of commercialisation from DJI’s project and scientific leadership were the launch of ICI’s only products based on CRP, Lucite SWESTM and Lucite GRATM. These projects improved the application performance of key products within the constraints of market sector economics and available reactor configurations and resulted in three patent filings. Lucite SWESTM realises approximately 15 million GBP in sales revenue per annum. He has received ICI Awards for Innovation (1998, 2002 and 2003), was the winner of the ICI Sustainability Award (2002) and was appointed to the ICI Scientific Ladder in 2001.