Polymer Chemistry Blog

Steve P. Armes graduated with BSc (1983) and PhD (1987) degrees from Bristol University. Post-doctoral fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico from 1987 to 1989. Academic at Sussex University for fifteen years (promoted to full Professor in 2000) being moving to a Personal Chair at Sheffield University in 2004. Currently Director of the Sheffield Polymer Centre, academic director of METRC and also a director of Farapack Polymers, a polymer services spin-out company. Published around 415 papers (H-index = 74) and named inventor on 16 patent applications. Awarded the RSC Macro Group prize for polymer science in 2007 and the RSC Peter Day prize for soft matter research in 2010. Recipient of a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award (2005-2009). Current research interests include: RAFT aqueous dispersion polymerisation; controlled-structure water-soluble polymers; block copolymer self-assembly; colloidal nanocomposite particles; stimulus-responsive polymers; conducting polymer particles; biocompatible block copolymers; branched copolymers; polymer brushes via surface polymerisation; macromonomers; novel sterically-stabilised latexes; interfacially-active particles for the preparation of Pickering emulsions and colloidosomes.

Please follow the link for further information on Steve’s research group and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

I had a very good Chemistry teacher at high school who worked for Courtaulds before going into education. It was (and probably still is) unusual for school teachers to have some industrial experience. He ‘lent’ me various chemicals from his chemicals store at school to do lots of experiments in my bedroom, including the obligatory stink bombs, chemical rockets and loud bangs. I don’t think that Health and Safety regulations would allow school teachers to inspire young students in quite the same way nowadays! I guess that my PhD supervisor Prof. Brian Vincent (now retired) also taught me the value of working closely with industry. Although my own PhD was not industrially sponsored, a substantial majority of my 45 or so PhD students have been either partially or fully-funded by a range of chemical companies. In addition to the financial support, I find that industrial supervisors provide a fresh perspective and often a new project direction, as well as lots of tough technical problems that academics would never dream up if we stayed in our ‘ivory towers’.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/C1PY00406A)

In 1990 my first PhD student (Mike Gill, who works for 3M) serendipitously discovered a novel surfactant-free route to colloidal nanocomposite particles. This simply involves conducting polymerisations in the presence of an ultrafine silica sol, which becomes incorporated within the precipitating polymer nuclei. To date I have published around sixty papers in this area, so Mike’s chance finding has been quite fruitful. Applications range from the pragmatic, such as the development of next-generation paint formulations (as exemplified by BASF scientists) to the prosaic, such as synthetic mimics for silicate-based micro-meteorites (which came out of my decade-long collaboration with space scientists such as Prof. M. J. Burchell at U. Kent). Over the last five years at Sheffield we have explored various aqueous emulsion polymerisation routes to colloidal nanocomposite particles. In this latest Polymer Chemistry article, Dr. Hua Zou evaluated an aqueous dispersion polymerisation route based on 2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Polymer Chemistry is a high-quality new RSC journal that is a natural outlet for advances in synthetic polymer chemistry. Based on the articles published in it to date, it is likely to have a high impact factor and should provide strong competition for Polymer, J. Polym. Sci. Polym. Chem. and perhaps even Macromolecules.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

In 2012 I plan to attend the Spring MRS meeting in San Francisco and also the Warwick 2012 conference on synthetic polymer chemistry organised by Prof. Dave Haddleton and his colleagues. I haven’t decided whether to go to the Fall ACS meeting in Philadelphia yet.

How do you spend your spare time?

According to my wife, I spend my spare time working! I don’t have any particular hobbies, but I relax by reading the Guardian newspaper, watching football on TV and walking in the beautiful Peak District, which is a ten-minute drive from my house in Sheffield.

Which profession would you choose if you were not an academic?

At the age of fourteen, I had to choose certain optional courses at high school. I wanted to take a ‘practical’ course in car mechanics but my school said that I had to choose something more ‘academic’. The only other options were History and Chemistry. I knew that I didn’t care for History, so I chose Chemistry, although I didn’t really appreciate what I was choosing (this was in the days of ‘general science’ at high schools). That was definitely my lucky break. The school careers advice was to become an accountant, which sounded boring but lucrative (and still does). I completed my PhD studies in 1987, which was a period of economic boom in the UK. Every graduating PhD student I knew had multiple job offers because all the big companies (Unilever, BP, Shell, Exxon, ICI etc.) were competing with each other to recruit the best young scientists. That situation seems crazy compared to that facing young scientists today, although fortunately all the ex-members of my research group have secured good positions in either academia or in industry.  I received job offers from ICI, BP and Unilever but decided instead to take a two-year post-doctoral position at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. It was only towards the end of my two years in the USA that I began to wonder whether I could become an academic. I applied for just one Lectureship position, which was advertised at Sussex University. Although having some initial misgivings about whether I could actually do the job, I have never found myself wondering ‘what if’ over the last two decades. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to learn a lot from my colleague Prof. Norman Billingham and Sussex was certainly a great place to be an academic for the first fifteen years of my career. It is clearly a lot tougher being a young academic today – there is much stronger competition for research funds.

Bradley Nilsson conducted PhD studies in organic chemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison with Professor Ronald T. Raines studying methodology for the chemoselective ligation of peptides. He subsequently completed postdoctoral research in synthetic organic chemistry with Professor Larry E. Overman at the University of California, Irvine. He joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Rochester in 2006. The Nilsson group is interested in molecular recognition and self-assembly phenomena of peptides and proteins leading to amyloid and in the development of amyloid-inspired materials and therapeutics.

Please follow the link for further information on Bradley’s research group and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

My decision to become a chemist was a direct result of engaging in undergraduate research. As an undergraduate at Brigham Young University I was initially a molecular biology major. I enjoyed my classes in organic chemistry and found an opportunity to work with Professor Steve Fleming conducting research in organic photochemistry. I fell in love with research and decided to pursue graduate studies in chemistry. The creative opportunity to study problems at the edge of our collective knowledge was very exciting to me. I found the study of chemical reactivity and molecular recognition particularly seductive, thus leading to my emphasis in organic chemistry.

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

Our article is a critical review of the self-assembly and hydrogelation behavior of simple amino acid and dipeptide derivatives. There is a growing body of work describing the emergent hydrogel properties of noncovalent polymer assemblies of these simple organic molecules. These hydrogels possess many of the characteristics of covalent polymers and have been applied to problems in ex vivo tissue engineering. However, the relationship between self-assembly and hydrogelation phenomena is still somewhat mysterious. As a result, the creation of new hydrogel materials relies largely on empirical approaches. The purpose of our review was to review recent work in this area as well as to suggest future avenues for research that will help bridge the gap between empiricism and rational design.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Polymer Chemistry is an ideal journal for publication of this work due to the emphasis of the journal on supramolecular structure and function.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

In the near future I plan to attend the Chemistry and Biology of Peptides Gordon Conference in Ventura, CA (February 2012).

How do you spend your spare times?

My postdoctoral research mentor once indicated that working adults probably have time for two serious hobbies in their life. He advised that for people seeking academic employment in chemistry, one of these hobbies should be chemistry. My wife and I have four young children who range from 4-13 years in age. My second hobby (and the rest of my “spare” time) revolves around time with family.

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

My dream professions outside science would be as a guitarist in a working rock band (reflecting my interests in music) or as a professional hockey player (reflecting my Canadian birthright). That’s not to say I’m qualified to do either (I’m not), but if I’m dreaming, those “jobs” seem particularly interesting.

Stephen Z. D. Cheng is an American polymer scientist and chemical engineer. Cheng is the current Dean of the College of Polymer Science & Polymer Engineering, and the R.C.Musson & Trustees Professor of Polymer Science at the University of Akron. Cheng became faculty as an assistant professor of polymer science at the University of Akron in October 1987. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1991, and further the professor of polymer science in 1995. Cheng became the Trustees Professor of Polymer Science in September 1998, and the Robert C. Musson Professor of Polymer Science in 2001, all at the University of Akron. From 2001 to 2005, Cheng was the Chairman of the Department of Polymer Science at the University of Akron, and he was appointed Dean of the College of Polymer Science & Polymer Engineering on August 1, 2007.

Wen-Bin Zhang, the key advisor in this topic, graduated in 2010 from the University of Akron with a PhD in Polymer Science under the supervision of Profs. Cheng and Quirk in the development of soft fullerene materials. He then stayed in the same group for one year to study molecular-nanoparticle-based functional materials with engineered hierarchical structures before he joins Prof. Tirrell’s group at the California Institute of Technology. His major research interest is to elucidate how a molecular function is transferred and amplified into a macroscopic property via hierarchical structure formation and to develop new materials for health- and energy-related applications.

Cheng’s research interests center on the condensed states in polymers, liquid crystals, hybrids, surfactants and micelles, and focuses on the interactions, responses, dynamics, and structures of materials on varying length and time scales in which the material itself embodies the technology.  His research activities include investigations of transition thermodynamics and kinetics in metastable states, ordered structures and morphologies, surface and interface structures in electronic and optical materials and functional materials.

Please follow the link for further information on Stephen’s research group and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

The ability to precisely tailor a macromolecule’s structure is indispensable to the development of novel functional materials and the elucidation of structure-property relationship. Our group’s primary focus is on the solid state structure of polymers. However, since my collaborators on the chemistry side are retiring, our group has to do chemistry. Now my group is half physics, half chemistry. The chemistry subgroup is led by Dr. Wen-Bin Zhang.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/C1PY00435B)

Shape amphiphiles are a novel and intriguing class of materials. With rigid shape and versatile interactions, they are promising in forming diverse hierarchical structures. [60]Fullerene is an interesting and versatile building block, however, its precise functionalization is difficult, particularly in polymers. We would like to put this buckyball to any position of the polymer chain in a controlled fashion and requires minimum purification. And we did it by using “click” chemistry and a highly reactive fulleryne that is developed in our group.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Polymer Chemistry is a new journal in polymer area and is receiving more and more attention. We believe that publishing the paper in Polymer Chemistry can certainly help the paper to be read by a broad scope of readers.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

ACS meeting next March in San Dieago.

How do you spend your spare times?

In my spare time, I exercise by playing Pingpong with my students. I enjoy poems, calligraphy, and violin.

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

Science is my favourite. I guess, if not science, perhaps something related to it.

Dr Alexander N. Zelikin has joined the Department of Chemistry at Aarhus University as an Assistant Professor in Medicinal Chemistry in December 2009. Prior to this, he received a PhD in Polymer Chemistry from Moscow State University under supervision of Prof. Vladimir A. Izumrudov (2003), worked with Prof. Robert Langer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later with Prof. David Putnam at Cornell University. He then joined the University of Melbourne and in 2006 was awarded an ARC Postdoctoral Fellowship and Discovery Grant toward the development of polymer hydrogel capsules as drug carriers and vessels for cell mimicry. In Aarhus, Dr. Zelikin established and leads an interdisciplinary laboratory for Medicinal Polymer Chemistry with current research activities in polymer therapeutics, antiviral research, physical hydrogels, and surface mediated drug delivery.  Dr. Zelikin co-authored over 60 peer reviewed publications; in 2010, Dr. Zelikin received a ‘‘Sapere Aude’’ Career Award from the Danish National Research Council (DFF); his lab currently receives research funding from the Lundbeck Foundation and DFF.

Please follow the link for further information on Alexander’s research group and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

The idea that only your imagination is your limit drove me to science. Why chemistry? Suppose it was mostly luck. I really think I would have enjoyed being a scientist in just about any discipline.

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

My group is actively expanding into the area of physical hydrogels and we needed to make good polymers. Remarkably, in the preceding decades this has not been accomplished for PVA, so we had to start from the very beginning.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Polymer Chemistry has made an astonishing start as a new forum and we (polymer chemists) already see it as a prestigious journal to publish in. Plus – it also has a friendly feel to it, which helps!

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I am definitely going to Hobart for the Australasian Polymer Symposium (February 2012). I miss Australia heaps, and miss Australian polymer community greatly.

How do you spend your spare times?

First of all, my new born son takes good care of my spare time and it will likely stay this way for quite a while. I used to, and will definitely do so again, walk, hike, travel, camp out and move around the world as much as I could. For me, the worst day outdoors is better than the best day between four walls.

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

I wished to be a clown, a jester, a singer… Now that I have a son, I get to be all that! So you see, my life desires are fast becoming reality. But seriously – travelling. May not be a profession, but that’s what I’d do.