Polymer Chemistry Blog

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.)

The research interests of Lian Hutchings (Department of Chemistry, Durham University) lie in the field of synthetic polymer chemistry and specifically the synthesis of polymers which are well controlled in terms of molecular weight, composition, functionality and chain architecture and the correlation of structure and properties. They exploit a variety of living/controlled polymerization mechanisms to achive that aim including living anionic polymerization, ATRP and RAFT. Moreover, they focus on preparation of DendriMacs, HyperMacs, Hyperblocks, end functionalized polymers and copolymers with controlled sequence. Please follow the link for further information on Lian’s research group and his current paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

I guess I have always been interested in science and cooking, even from an early age. However, my path into chemistry (which has much in common with cooking) was inspired by a fabulous organic chemistry teacher at school. Ken Dancer taught me organic chemistry from the age of 12-17 and he taught the subject in a way that not only made things crystal clear but also involved sufficient fun to maintain our interest. I suppose this was easier in the days when health and safety was not quite so all pervasive.

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

Our recent paper in Polymer Chemistry forms part of an ongoing study into the use of multi end functionalised additives to modify polymer surface properties. We have been working in this area for a number of years and the present study allowed us to exploit living anionic polymerisation to systematically study the impact of the molecular weight of the additives upon their performance. No other polymerisation mechanism offers the same degree of control over molecular weight.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

The RSC journals are very often our first port- of-call. We have published many papers in Soft Matter which we have always found to be an excellent journal with high impact and a pain free and rapid publication process. However, the current paper seemed much more in keeping with the scope of Polymer Chemistry which I believe will become an excellent addition to the RSC journals.

At which conferences can our readers expect to see you in 2011?

I am planning quite a busy year after a quiet one last year. So I intend to be in Granada for the European Polymer Congress in June, in Akron Ohio in July for IP 2011, the only conference focussed on ionic polymerisation and I am looking forward to visiting South Korea for the Pacific Polymer Conference in November.

How do you spend your spare time? 

I wish! At present it appears that every spare moment is taken up with the launch of the new Durham Centre for Soft Matter. However, I try to get some quality time each day with my wife Alli, and twin daughters Amy and Charlotte.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?Possibly a chef, a forest manager or a financial advisor!