Polymer Chemistry Blog

Steve Howdle is currently leading his research group in the School of Chemistry, The University of Nottingham, UK. His main research interests are supercritical fluids, biomaterials, polymer modification, polymer composites, nanocomposites and devices. Steve is the chairman of the Macro Group UK, which is a joint interest group of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Society of Chemical Industry. Steve is also coach of the Toton Tigers Under 10s football squad and holds an official coaching award of the English FA.

Please follow the link to get more information about Steve’s research group and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

Just like many others, I was inspired by some very good chemistry teachers when I was at School – flashes, bangs, flames and smells – all the things that still attract young people to chemistry!

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper?

I’ve been working with supercritical carbon dioxide for most of my career.  The world  has a problem with CO₂ – and a great deal of effort and money is being channelled into collecting and storing it. I think we really ought to be using it!  Some chemists are activating it, some are polymerising it, I think that if just some of that CO₂ could replace other solvents this could have a  large impact which would be very positive for the environment.  But it’s more than that – we have shown that there are many cases where you can carry out a reaction or a process in supercritical CO₂ that you simply cannot achieve in a normal solvent – so there could be very real advantages to using CO₂ – and that has been a major driver for my research recently with applications from polymer and material synthesis through to tissue engineering and drug delivery.

This particular paper is focussed on showing that some new inexpensive  polymers have high solubility in CO₂ and could be used as effective surfactants and stabilisers for CO₂. Up till now, only fluorinated and silicone based materials showed significant solubility, and these can be expensive and are not always environmentally benign. We hope that our paper will show that alternative, cheaper materials could be used, and hence open up more opportunities to exploit supercritical carbon dioxide.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

It’s the first RSC Journal focussed on Polymers, and it really is a natural choice for quite a lot of my research.  This is my first paper in PC – but I’m sure there will be more!

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

The next conference I will be going to is quite unusual – The 6th Scientific and Engineering Conference with International Participation “Supercritical Fluids: Fundamentals, Technologies, Innovations” is being held on the shores of Lake Baikal, Siberia in early July!

How do you spend your spare time?

I have two teenage boys – both competitive swimmers – and I spend a lot of my time ferrying them to training and competitions (I’m writing these answers by the pool!).  I also love football, I still play (for a Veterans’ team) and I also coach kids – I am the manager of the Toton Tigers U13s squad.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?
Football player– but I wasn’t good enough!

Bert Klumperman is a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science in University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Bert is very well known in the Polymer Science field with his studies on understanding the kinetics of radical polymerization reactions. Their research is based on not only mechanistic and kinetic studies but also the synthesis of advanced macromolecular structures for various applications. Please follow the links for further information on Bert’s research group and his current paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?
During secondary school I was very much attracted to science topics (mainly mathematics, biology and chemistry). After initial thoughts on studying biology, I decided to go for chemistry and chemical engineering at Twente University (Netherlands). In my current position in Stellenbosch (South Africa) I get many opportunities to collaborate with scientists in Biochemistry, Microbiology, Pharmacology and the Medical School. I greatly enjoy this direction of my research.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/c1py00069a)
Throughout my career (initial industrial career at DSM Research, later academic career at Eindhoven University of Technology and Stellenbosch University), poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride) (SMA) has always played a big role. It is almost like a red line through my entire career up to this point. In 2009, my colleague Prof Peter Mallon and I supervised a student who worked for a number of weeks on electrospinning of SMA. She showed that there are very interesting possibilities in terms of post-spinning modification. Among the many experiments she tried to immobilize a protein (lysozyme), which seemed to work. In 2010, we continued this work with an Honours student (William Cloete), who immobilized the enzymes described in the paper. In collaboration with a student from Biochemistry (Craig Adriaanse) from the group of Prof Pieter Swart, he carried out the enzyme immobilization and the characterization in terms of enzyme activity. It turned out that such a facile immobilization technique on a solid, high surface area membrane works very well.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?
I already had very positive experience with Polymer Chemistry for the publication of an earlier paper. The layout is done very nicely and, in general, they publish high quality work. It will be very interesting to see what their first Impact Factor (IF) is going to be. I would not be surprised if they manage to compete with the very top journals in the field of Polymer Science in terms of IF. For me at least, Polymer Chemistry will remain a serious candidate for publishing my future work.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?
After a conference in Turkey (Antalya, LRP’11) in mid-April, and one in my home town Stellenbosch (UNESCO/IUPAC Conference on Macromolecules and Materials) at the end of April, the next one will again be in South Africa. From 22-26 May, I will be in Pretoria to attend the 11th International Conference on Frontiers of Polymers and Advanced Materials. After that it will be quiet for a while and I will only attend the ACS National Meeting in Denver (28 August – 1 September), where Prof Kris Matyjaszewski will co-organize the 6th edition of an international symposium on Controlled/Living Radical Polymerization.

How do you spend your spare time?
Ever since I was 10 years old, I have actively played musical instruments. Initially I played the clarinet in a wind orchestra and several smaller bands. When I worked full-time in Eindhoven, I played clarinet in one of the top amateur wind orchestras of the Netherlands (“Koninklijke Harmonie Oefening & Uitspanning” from Beek en Donk) with which I participated in the World Music Contest in Kerkrade (Netherlands) in 1997. Just over 10 years ago, I switched to play the oboe. After a few years of practicing, I started to play the 1st oboe in a small symphony orchestra in Wassenaar (Netherlands), which I did for three years. At that time I had taken up my current position at Stellenbosch University (South Africa), which made it impossible to continue. Currently, I am still taking oboe lessons and at this very moment practicing Mozarts Oboe Quartet in F-major, which I hope to play with a violin, viola and cello in the second half of the year at some informal occasion in Stellenbosch.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?
This is the most difficult question to answer. The most obvious answer would be a professional musician, which in actual fact I have considered at some point. However, also several professions in the medical world would be serious candidates.

André Laschewsky has been a professor for Macromolecular Science in the University of Potsdam since 2001. His main research interests can be listed as synthesis and characterization of novel functional monomers and polymers, polymers in aqueous media, self-organization of polymers and functionalization of the assemblies formed, biomimicking by polymer and surfactant systems, correlation of molecular architecture, supramolecular structure and macroscopic properties of polymers. Please follow the link to get more information about Andre’s research group and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?
The possibility to create my own personal and unique objects of research, as well as the combination of practical work in the laboratory together with a rigid logical approach to understand what I do and provoke.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/c1py00001b)
We wanted to show that localized supramolecular interactions can modify key properties of functional macromolecules as a whole, though most molecular fragments seem “independent” and are not involved in the interaction.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?
Though the journal is very new, I like it very much and enjoyed reading every issue so far. I find it to be the journal with the most creative contributions to polymer synthesis at present.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?
– Smart Polymer Systems Conference, 25-26 May 2011at Mainz (Germany)
– 25th European Colloid and Interface Society Conference, Berlin Sept. 4-9 sept 2011 at Berlin (Germany)
– 7th European Detergents Conference (EDC), 14-16 oct 2011 at Fulda (Germany)

How do you spend your spare time?
With my family, reading, hiking

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?
I cannot imagine that.

Levent Toppare is a professor of chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, Department of Polymer Science and Technology and Department of Biotechnology in Middle East Technical University with an expertise in electrochemistry. He is also a member of Center for Solar Energy Research and Applications (GÜNAM). His research interests include conducting polymers and his group has recently been involved in electrochromism, electrochromic devices and photovoltaic cells. Toppare obtained his PhD (1982) degree from METU. He has published over 300 scientific papers and he is the recipient of British Council, Fulbright and Alexander von Humboldt Scholarships. Please follow the links for further information on the Toppare group and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?
My High School Chemistry teacher, rest in peace, had an important impact on me in deciding to become a Faculty member in Chemistry. I consulted the Chairman of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at METU when I was an 11^th grade student, and finally decided on studying Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, METU.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper?
Actually, we were invited by the editor to submit a paper. He very much liked our paper and its content on the electrochromism of polymers published in Chemical Communications.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?
We believe it will turn out to be a very high impact factor journal soon. Besides returning Prof. Haddleton’s offer would not be polite.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?
We recently developed a new laboratory on organic Solar Cells; we anticipate revealing our studies in future meetings.

How do you spend your spare time?
Spare time? I have my dinner with my wife before retiring for bed. Just joking, I play bridge twice a week.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?
I never thought about that. I decided on this when I was only 16.

Julien Nicolas graduated in 2001 from the “Ecole Supérieure de Chimie Organique et Minérale (ESCOM)” (Cergy-Pontoise, France). He completed his PhD in 2005 under the supervision of Prof. Bernadette Charleux at the University Pierre and Marie Curie (Paris), where he studied nitroxide-mediated polymerization in homogeneous and aqueous dispersed media. Then, he joined the group of Prof. David M. Haddleton at the University of Warwick (United-Kingdom), for a postdoctoral fellowship to design polymer-protein bioconjugates by controlled/living radical polymerization. In 2007, he was appointed permanent CNRS researcher in the group of Prof. Patrick Couvreur, University Paris-Sud (France), where his current research activities are focused on the controlled/living radical polymerization and on the synthesis of novel (bio)polymers and nanoparticles for drug delivery purposes. Please follow the links for more information about Julien Nicolas and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

I think it all started with my family as my father is a professor of Biochemistry at the University Pierre and Marie Curie, here in Paris. When I was a child, he often brought me to his laboratory; so almost from the beginning, I’ve been used to the lab environment and scientific research. Actually, this is the place where I did my first (polymer!) experiment: plunging a rubber band into liquid nitrogen… At that time, I had no clue about what was going on… Thus, quite rapidly at school, I decided I would work in chemistry. Perhaps also because during secondary school, caring teachers used to give me chemicals to do some experiments in my homemade chemistry lab at home (I think I never told my mother I distilled her perfume by the way…). Then, more seriously, I had the chance to meet great polymer chemists, such as J.-F Pierson, B. Boutevin, B. Charleux and D. M. Haddleton, who guided and inspired me in the field of polymer science.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/c1py00028d)

When Dr. Benjamin Le Droumaguet and I were writing our review about bioconjugates (DOI: 10.1039/B9PY00363K), it was astonishing to see how poor the literature was for biomaterials deriving from nitroxide-mediated polymerization. Taking into account the inherent features and main strengths of NMP, there was in my opinion a gap to fill in, especially in the field of polymer-protein bioconjugates. Then, we basically took inspiration from pioneering works in the bioconjugate area and developed a suitable bioconjugation platform via NMP, by putting together various achievements from ourselves and our colleagues (e.g., functional alkoxyamines, copolymerization with methacrylates, cytotoxicity of NMP-deriving polymers etc). In the near future, I wish to continue to develop novel biomaterials deriving from controlled/living radical polymerization, and especially from NMP.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

When I first heard about the launch of a polymer journal from RSC, I thought it was a brilliant idea and a kind of missing link between Chem. Commun., Soft Matter and J. Mater. Chem. I really feel confident that it will soon become one of the leading polymer journals.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

This year will be really exciting as I will be attending the International Nanomedicine Conference in Sydney and the ACS Meeting in Denver. But this time, I’m not going to miss my flight back from Australia, as I did in 2009 after the PPC11 2009!

How do you spend your spare time?

I mostly spend my spare time travelling and doing exciting road trips with my wife. Among them: Portugal, Scotland, Japan and Canada. Enjoying the breathtaking Scottish highlands and fishing for salmon in the Canadian wilderness are among my best trip memories.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?

Tough question. Actually, I would have liked to be a veterinarian or a computer programmer (my nerd side I guess!), although it is not completely disconnected from science. Otherwise, I think that a job where you create things with your hands, such as a cabinet-maker, would have suited me.

Scott was born in St. Louis, MO, and graduated from Chaminade College Preparatory.  He came to Tulane for the first time to carry out Bachelors degrees in Chemistry, Mathematics, and History in 1996, and then moved to the University of Bradford where he completed a masters degree in Archaeological Chemistry under the direction of Professor Carl P. Heron in 1998.  He completed his doctoral studies in Chemistry in 2002 at the University of California, Berkeley, with Professor Jean Fréchet, developing new dendritic architectures for biological applications.  He continued his training as a post-doctoral researcher in the labs of C. Grant Willson, at the University of Texas at Austin, developing new polymer materials for photolithography and biosensing, and has been an Assistant Professor at Tulane University since 2005. Please follow the links for more information on the Grayson group and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

My first and most important scientific inspirations were my parents and older brothers.  My dad is a mass spectrometrist and my mom a Calculus teacher, so I was doomed from an early age.  In addition to some exceptionally inspiring chemistry teachers and mentors, I think my primary attraction to chemistry, rather than other sciences, is that I consider it the “mesoscience”.  Chemistry ties together the fundamental aspects of math and physics to the more complex and applied fields of the biological sciences as well as materials science and engineering.  I find exploring in this middle ground more intellectually appealing than elsewhere in the sciences.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper?

The field of cyclic polymers is one of the under-explored frontiers in polymer chemistry.  Although there are some tremendously valuable early studies in this field, recent synthetic advances are opening up the field to enable more in-depth explorations.  In addition to providing invaluable fundamental insight into polymer structure-property relationships, recent studies suggest that the unique physical and biological properties of cyclic polymers will lead to applications that justify these research efforts.  Jessica’s review highlights some of these issues as they relate specifically to cyclic polyesters.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

I believe Polymer Chemistry fills a void which has existed in the journal geography for some time and therefore is poised from its onset to be a high impact and broadly relevant journal.

At which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I will be helping to organize the International Dendrimer Conference (IDS7) in Washington, DC (26 June – 1 July 2011), and attending the American Society for Mass Spectrometry meeting in early June (Denver).

How do you spend your spare time?

Ha!  I am coming up for tenure at Tulane University next year, so this is a moot question.  But I do try to run regularly to keep myself healthy (mentally as much as physically) and spend every other spare moment with my fiancée.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?

I actually studied Archaeological Chemistry in the UK before pursuing my PhD in Chemistry with Jean Fréchet, so if I won the lottery I might become an archaeologist.  However, I would limit myself to studying a civilization in some place warm that also has fantastic food and culture, like the Romans/Italy or the Mayans/Yucatan.   (You now see why I live in New Orleans.)