Polymer Chemistry Blog

Read Julieta’s Open Access Emerging Investigator article, ‘Redox-triggerable firefly luciferin-bioinspired hydrogels as injectable and cell-encapsulating matrices’

Check out our interview with Julieta below:

1. How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

Polymer Chemistry is a top reputed journal in the field, and represents a paramount home for discussion of the state-of-the-art. I feel delighted to contribute whenever is possible!

2. What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

I am thrilled about the transversal nature of my research. My work combines tools from synthetic organic and polymer chemistry, biomaterials science, and cell biology; to engineer smart soft materials that interacts with living cells and tissues. One research line in my lab is the development of responsive hydrogels for cell encapsulation. These artificial models can be used to study the complex communication between cells and between cells and their native microenvironment. The biggest challenge is that the native cell niche is very dynamic, therefore, capturing such features in a synthetic material is complex but fascinating at the same time.

3. In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

We want to better understand how cells communicate with themselves and with their environment, so we can develop novel approaches in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. In this regard, engineered materials whose properties can be regulated on demand can help us to investigate those type of questions. I am particularly interested in the possibility of controlling matrix viscoelasticity on demand to steer cell behavior. Thereby, I believe that the polymer chemistry field has much to offer by providing inspiration towards novel mechanoresponsive polymeric tools upon which smart biomaterials can be built.

4. Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

I would encourage young researchers to get involved into (and, eventually, to create their own) diverse scientific teams. I have enjoyed very much my journey so far, since it allowed me to be surrounded and get inspired by researchers from diverse disciplines, career stage, geographical background and way of thinking. This multidisciplinary and multicultural ingredient of a scientific team, which has greatly impacted my career, is in my view what makes science very creative, rewarding and fun.

Quentin Michaudel grew up in La Rochelle, France. He received his B.Sc. (2008) and M.Sc. (2010) from the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon. He earned his Ph.D. (2015) with Professor Phil S. Baran at The Scripps Research Institute, where he explored C–H functionalization methods and their applications to the synthesis of complex molecules. Quentin then accepted a postdoctoral position at Cornell University, where he developed photocontrolled polymerizations with Professor Brett P. Fors. In 2018, Quentin started his independent career as an assistant professor at Texas A&M University. His research group focuses on the development of synthetic methods and new organic materials. Quentin is the recipient of the 2022 ACS PMSE Young Investigator Award; the 2022 ACS Organic Division Academic Young Investigator’s Symposium; and the 2021 Thieme Chemistry Journals Award. You can follow Quentin and his lab on Twitter @q_michaudel and @MichaudelLab

Read Quentin’s Emerging Investigator article, ‘Expedient synthesis and ring-opening metathesis polymerization of pyridinonorbornenes’

Check out our interview with Quentin below:

1. How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

Polymer Chemistry is a great venue for synthetic studies focused on new polymeric architectures, as well as for reports of polymerizations relying on catalytic processes. It is a great place for the polymer community to share impactful results.

2. What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

I am very excited about my group’s ability to precisely synthesize polymers with high structural complexity and tailored properties. Our research requires the often-difficult characterization of novel polymers, as well as the investigation of intricate reaction mechanisms, but that challenge is exciting and motivates us to push the boundaries of the field.

Read Zachary’s Emerging Investigator article, ‘Donor modification of thermally activated delayed fluorescence photosensitizers for organocatalyzed atom transfer radical polymerization’

Check out our interview with Zachary below:

1. How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

Polymer Chemistry is the perfect place to read about innovative techniques in polymer synthesis, and we’re excited to contribute an article with a photophysical twist.

2. What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

I’m very excited about our work on luminescent polymer dots, or Pdots – nanoparticles that can be bright enough to be detected with a handheld smartphone camera. We’re collaborating with my colleague Russ Algar at UBC to develop nanoparticles for biosensing using smartphones, and translating this to technology that could be used in a healthcare setting represents a major exciting challenge.

3. In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

Our current featured article uses organic photosensitizers as catalysts for controlled radical polymerization. In this space, we need to develop highly photostable sensitizers that can perform using visible light irradiation. This is a major challenge, because accessing suitably high-energy excited states using visible light is itself a contradictory requirement.

4. Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

I’m a big fan of ‘white space’ in my calendar – time in which nothing is booked, so I have the space to just read or think. The hectic lifestyle of early-career academia combined with our always-connected culture makes it hard to find time to just think about science – schedule it if you have to!

Myungwoong Kim received his B.S. in Chemistry (2002) and M.S. in Physical Chemistry (2004) from Hanyang University under supervision of Prof. Daewon Sohn, then worked for several years in photopatterning materials industry. He completed his Ph.D. in Materials Science (2013) at University of Wisconsin – Madison under supervision of Prof. Padma Gopalan. He then conducted his postdoctoral research in Prof. Christopher K. Ober’s group at Cornell University. In 2015, he joined the Department of Chemistry at Inha University to begin his independent research career. His current research interests include precision polymer synthesis for desired structures and properties, surface and interface engineering, polymeric material designs for micro/nanofabrications, for functional gels, and for understanding polymer dynamics.

Read Myungwoong’s Emerging Investigator article, ‘Comprehensive studies of continuous flow reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer copolymerization and its application for photoimaging materials’

Check out our interview with Myungwoong below:

1. How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

I have enjoyed reading the articles in Polymer Chemistry. I have been impressed by the journal scope, especially respecting and embracing conventional, but fundamental and significant polymer chemistry topics, for example, polymerization kinetics and photopolymer chemistry. However, the journal has also been enthusiastic to publish high quality articles dealing with cutting edge topics. This unique balancing makes me keep following every day and considering Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish.

2. What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

For the patterns in single-digit nanometer dimension, the size becomes equivalent to less than ten copolymer chains. In this limit, the homogeneity of the copolymer system gets important to improve the pattern quality, such as line edge roughness. The continuous flow process shown in our work can address this issue; however, it also gave us an important message: the compositional drift due to unequal reactivity between monomers results in an intrinsic compositional inhomogeneity in copolymer samples. This is further related to the fundamental challenging question: “can we precisely control the structure and composition of complex polymers?”.

3. In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

How do we precisely control compositional and structural parameters of polymers, for example, sequence, desired chemical functionalities, molecular weight, and its distribution, while the high complexity is attained? Can we produce this elegantly shaped polymer in a large quantity? How are the parameters correlated with the resulting properties, for example, the position of developable unit in the chain vs. the quality of photopattern? Can we expand these challenges to more complex polymeric systems such as crosslinked polymer networks and polymer thin films?

4. Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

We all experience failure. No one can become always successful. This should be the case especially for early career scientists including me. I have thought of an inspirational quote that was personally given to me by Prof. Hyuk Yu, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at University of Wisconsin at Madison, and now I am so happy to share this with other early career polymer scientists: “Life and hope are viscoelastic. Failure should take time to restore, but never yield to or break by it. Bend and recover!!!”. This may be the advice given to us by polymer, our lifelong friend, as well.

Athina Anastasaki was born and raised in Athens, Greece and obtained her B.S. in Chemistry at the University of Athens. She then commenced her PhD studies at the University of Warwick under the supervision of Prof. Dave Haddleton and graduated in late 2014 with the Jon Weaver award for the best PhD in polymer chemistry in the UK. In early 2015, she accepted a Monash-Warwick research fellow position between the Pharmaceutical department at Monash University and the University of Warwick, jointly supervised by Prof. Thomas Davis and Prof. Dave Haddleton. She then received an Elings Fellowship, followed by a Global Marie Curie Fellowship, to conduct research alongside Prof. Craig Hawker at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Since January 2019, she is an Assistant Professor at ETH and her group focuses on fundamental polymer synthesis and self-assembly predominantly in the area of controlled radical polymerisation. Athina has co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and has been the recipient of the ERC starting Grant, the Hanwha-Total IUPAC Young Scientist Award, the Polymers Young Investigator Award and the Golden Owl award, which is in recognition of outstanding faculty teaching. Athina also currently serves as an Associate Editor for Polymer Chemistry. More details about Athina’s lab can be found here https://polymeric.mat.ethz.ch/ You can follow Athina on Twitter @AthinaAnastasa1 and her lab group @AnastasakiLab

Read Athina’s Emerging Investigator article, ‘The effect of surface-active statistical copolymers in low-energy miniemulsion and RAFT polymerization’ 

Check out our interview with Athina below:

1.  How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

I am very excited about publishing our work in Polymer Chemistry and it has always been a very pleasant experience as, even for the negative decisions, the Editors always treat you with respect and professionalism.

2. Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with early career scientists?

What has helped me a lot is asking for support every time I need it without worrying about appearing weak. Finding one (or two) mentors and/or an academic friend makes a huge difference.

Read Louis’s Emerging Investigator article ‘Fully biobased triblock copolymers generated using an unconventional oscillatory plug flow reactor’

Check out our interview with Louis below:

How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

I think Polymer Chemistry is a premier journal, well-respected by everyone involved in polymer research. Polymer Chemistry consistently publishes works at the forefront of polymer science, across its diverse range of related topics, and is one of the only journals I routinely browse. The interactions with the editorial board during submission and publication have always been among the best in the publishing world. The speed and professionalism with which our manuscripts are handled is unique and refreshing.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

Polymer scientists currently face a grand challenge to adapt to a global plastic-pollution crisis, with far-reaching implications related to the health of our planet and its diverse communities. Our research is helping to advance polymer materials themselves, and transform the way we make polymers to address these challenges head-on. We do this primarily by developing innovative synthetic technology. This is tremendously challenging, considering the vast diversity of topics and expertise that are involved in polymer science – from synthesis to molecular and physical characterization to processing and reactor design. However, this is also an amazing opportunity to collaborate with an inspiring community of experts across the globe – this is one of the most rewarding parts of the job.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

Try to find a topic that is not only high impact, but will also hold your interest for a long time. Also, finding activities that energize you outside the lab/office has been invaluable for me in maintaining efficiency and staying engaged with both colleagues and students.

Junpeng Zhao received his B.S. (2005) and Ph.D. (2010) from University of Science and Technology of China under the supervision of Prof. Guangzhao Zhang. From 2007 to 2009, he undertook a joint Ph.D. appointment, supported by China Scholarship Council, in National Hellenic Research Foundation (Greece) under the supervision of Prof. Stergios Pispas. Afterwards, he was a postdoctoral researcher first at Max-Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (Germany) with Prof. Helmut Schlaad and Prof. Markus Antonietti (2011-2012), and then at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Saudi Arabia) with Prof. Nikos Hadjichristidis (2012-2014). In early 2015, he joined South China University of Technology and began his professorship. His main research interest is synthetic polymer chemistry, with special focus on anionic polymerization, organocatalytic/metal-free polymerization, and synthesis of polymers from renewable resources. He has been the coauthor of 70 peer-reviewed papers and 15 patents, and the (co)supervisor of 25 master/Ph.D. students.   Read Junpeng Zhao’s Emerging Investigator’s article, ‘ Selective ring-opening polymerization of glycidyl esters: a versatile synthetic platform for glycerol-based (co)polyethers’

Read our interview with Junpeng below.

1. How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

Submitting my work to Polymer Chemistry ensures a pleasant reviewing process as well as timely publication.

2. What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

What I am most excited about at the moment is the strict but readily tunable chemoselectivity of two-component organocatalysts which enables precise and convenient synthesis of an increasingly large variety of functional and/or complex polymers. What I have found most challenging is understanding polymerization mechanism, without disproving it soon after.

3. In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

How can we avoid major side effects when trying to make the world a better place using synthetic polymers? What can we learn from nature about designing and tailoring polymer structures and functions?

4. Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

New successes may hide in experiments which seem to have failed at first glance.

Mingjun Huang obtained his B.S. at Peking University in 2010. Then he worked on macromolecular self-assembly with Prof. Stephen Z.D. Cheng at the University of Akron, and obtained his PhD degree in Polymer Chemistry in 2015. After that he moved to MIT and joined the Jeremiah Johnson group as a postdoc, working on battery electrolyte material development. From February 2019, Mingjun started his independent career in South China University of Technology (SCUT). He is currently a professor in South China Advanced Institute for Soft Matter Science and Technology & School of Emergent Soft Matter. He mainly focuses on the novel functional soft matter development within the scope of optics, electric, and energy storage. The main research projects involve: 1) Liquid crystals/liquid crystal polymers with unprecedented structures and properties for applications in optical and electric materials; 2) Self-assembly study of macromolecules with precise chemical structures in condensed states; 3) Design of functional polymer materials for specific needs in display technology and microelectronic industry.   Read Mingjun Huang’s Emerging Investigator’s article ‘ Perfluorocyclobutyl-containing transparent polyimides with low dielectric constant and low dielectric loss‘

Read our interview with Mingjun below.

1. How do you feel about Polymer Chemistry as a place to publish research on this topic?

In my mind, Polymer Chemistry is a leading polymer journal for design, synthesis, structure and property study of polymer materials. Particularly for polyimide research, novelty for chemical structure as well as excellent material property is usually required. I feel a great sense of achievement for publication of this topic on this journal.

2. What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

As a polymer chemist, I am most excited about the successful collection of the new polymer samples, after a long journey of monomer design, synthesis and polymerization. I prefer to design monomer structures with simplicity and functionality.

In my research of polyimide materials, the most challenging part is the monomer structure design, i.e. how to balance the polymerization reactivity and targeted functionality in new monomer structure. Obtaining rather high purity of new monomers is also not an easy task for this step polymerization.

3. In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

Polyimides have great potentials for applications in microelectronic industry or flexible display technology. In my opinion, the most important question is how to integrate all the required high performances (e.g. good processibility, high transparency, low dielectric, high glass transition temperature, high thermal degradation stability) in one single material through either chemical structure or composite formulation tuning. A shortage in any important material property would prevent its practical application.

4. Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

I believe in-depth discussions with senior people in similar research area would be very helpful for seeking the entry point or inspiration of new ideas.