About the Speaker's

Find out more information on the invited speakers.

DPOLY/PPG Exchange Lecture

Michelle A Calabrese, University of Minnesota, USA

Michelle A Calabrese is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota. She received her BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 2012 and completed her PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware in 2017. Following a postdoc at MIT, she joined the faculty at UMN in 2019. Her research group employs rheology, soft matter physics, and polymer and nanoparticle synthesis to address a range of fundamental and applied problems in polymer and soft materials engineering.

Lorna Dougan, University of Leeds, UK

Lorna Dougan is a Professor of Physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leeds, an ERC Consolidator Fellow and EPSRC Public Engagement Champion. Dougan's work is in the hierarchical structure and mechanics of protein networks in solution. Her interdisciplinary research group employs protein engineering, mechanical characterisation using single molecule force spectroscopy and rheology and scattering using neutrons and x-rays to study the translation of mechanical and structural properties across scales. Recent areas of interest include in situ network formation in folded protein hydrogels, combined wide and small angle scattering to examine biomolecular hydration and assembly and exploiting enzymes to create responsive biomaterials for medicine and healthcare applications.

Karen Johnston, University of Strathclyde, UK

Karen Johnston is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Strathclyde. Her research expertise is in multiscale modelling of materials and interfaces, and she is particularly interested in polymer crystallisation and heterogeneous nucleation from solution. She is Principal Investigator on one of ten awarded UKRI Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging projects (NE/V010603/1) “Biocomposite Design for Food Packaging”, and a Leverhulme Trust Research Programme Grant (2019-RPG-197) “Catching Nucleation in Action using Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy”.

Founders Prize

Mark Matsen, University of Waterloo, Canada

Matsen obtained his BSc in Mathematical Physics at Simon Fraser University in 1987 and his PhD in Physics at the University of Guelph in 1991. During his PhD, he investigated bicontinuous microemulsions in mixtures of water, oil and surfactant, under the supervision of Don Sullivan. He then moved to University of Washington to continue this line of research under the supervision of Michael Schick. There he started to explore polymeric models and in doing so developed an efficient computational method to solve the self-consistent field theory of Sam Edwards for complex block copolymer morphologies. His success landed him a second postdoc position at the University of Minnesota with Frank Bates, the leading experimental group in block copolymer research. In 1996, he was then hired as a Lecturer in the Polymer Physics Group at the University of Reading. He continued his development and application of SCFT, rising through the ranks to Reader (2000) and Professor (2005). He was elected as a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2008 for “seminal contributions to the development and implementation of the self-consistent field theory for block-copolymer materials and polymeric brushes.” In 2013, he took up a University Research Chair position at the University of Waterloo. During his time there, his research has become increasingly focused on the development and application of a novel simulation technique known as field-theoretic simulations.

Matthew Tirrell, University of Chicago, USA

Matthew Tirrell is the D. Gale Johnson Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago, where he was the Founding Dean from 2011-23. Tirrell's work is in self-assembly and interfacial phenomena in polymers. This work has uncovered new physics of phase transitions and led to development of new materials, most recently, based on polyelectrolyte complexation. We design and synthesize self-assembling molecules that organize into multifunctional, multivalent micelles with targeting, image contrast and therapeutic capabilities. Recent areas of concentration have been on complexes that target vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque, that disrupt intracellular protein-protein interactions, and that package nucleic acids for targeted and efficient delivery

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