Polymer Chemistry editorial board members

Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7456-1343

Christine is based at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, where she earned the Syngenta Award for her work on surface modifications using supercritical carbon dioxide. Her postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley under Prof. Jean Fréchet sparked her interest in semiconducting polymers for organic photovoltaics.

Luscombe joined the University of Washington in 2006, receiving accolades, including the NSF CAREER Award and the Sloan Research Fellowship. Elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences in 2020, she was honored with the Society of Polymer Science Japan Science Award in 2022. She has published over 140 papers, focusing on semiconducting polymers, and served as the IUPAC Polymer Division President (2020-2023).

Athina Anastasaki, Associate editor

ETH Zurich, Switzerland

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6615-1026

Athina completed her PhD studies at the University of Warwick under the supervision of Professor Dave Haddleton and received the Jon Weaver Award for the best PhD thesis in Polymer Chemistry in the United Kingdom. She then commenced a Monash-Warwick post-doctoral appointment between Monash University (with Professor Tom Davis) and the University of Warwick (with Professor Haddleton).

In 2016, she was awarded an Elings fellowship and a Global Marie Curie Fellowship to conduct research at the University of California in Santa Barbara working alongside Professor Craig Hawker. She is now an Assistant Professor at the Materials Department of ETH Zurich and has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles. Her research focuses on controlled radical polymerization, self-assembly of polymeric materials, polymerization mechanisms and complex materials of different architectures.

Filip Du Prez, Associate editor

Ghent University, Belgium

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7727-4155

Filip graduated from his postgraduate studies in macromolecular chemistry from Ghent (Belgium) and Lehigh (USA) University in 1996, after which he carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Montpellier and Ghent University (UGent). In 1999, he ultimately became the research leader of the Polymer Chemistry Research group (PCR) within the Centre of Macromolecular Chemistry (CMaC) at Ghent University, where he now leads a research group of 25 researchers and the UGent valorization consortium Chemtech as full professor.

Filip’s current research focuses on the development of new polymer structures, exploration of powerful polymer functionalization methods and design of polymer materials for high-value applications. His team uses a highly interdisciplinary approach to develop industrially applicable polymer materials. The main research themes of his research are:

• polymer functionalization to absolute control
• dynamic and self-healing polymeric materials such as vitrimers
• increasing the functionality of renewable polymers

Holger Frey, Associate editor

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6939-6371

Holger Frey is a Professor at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the author of 330 peer-reviewed original publications and reviews in different areas of current Polymer Science. His scope of interests is broad and comprises hyperbranched materials (polyethers, polyesters, polycarbonates), silicon-based polymers, multifunctional poly(ethylene glycol)s, block copolymers in general and polymer nanostructures for drug transport.

The current research interest of his group is centered on new functional polymers prepared via oxyanionic ring-opening polymerization, new approaches utilizing CO₂ as a monomer, and non-conventional approaches in carbanionic polymer synthesis. 

Rongrong Hu, Associate editor

South China University of Technology, China

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7939-6962

Rongrong Hu received her B.S. degree from Peking University and her PhD degree from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. She is currently a Professor of the State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices at South China University of Technology. She has published over 110 peer-reviewed articles and reviews.

Her research interests include the development of alkyne or isocyanide-based multicomponent polymerization methodology through the combination of organic and polymer synthesis and, luminescent polymers with diverse structures and applications. Her current research focuses on the development of multicomponent polymerizations of elemental sulfur and sulfur-containing functional polymers.

Rebekka Klausen, Associate editor

Johns Hopkins University, USA

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4724-4195

Prof. Rebekka S. Klausen carried out graduate studies in organic synthesis with Prof. Eric N. Jacobsen (Ph.D. 2011, Harvard University) and postdoctoral research in single molecule electronics with Prof. Colin Nuckolls (2011-2013, Columbia University). In 2013, she joined the Johns Hopkins University Department of Chemistry as an Assistant Professor and is now the Second Decade Society Associate Professor.

Her research program has been recognized with awards including the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry (2021) and the ACS Macro Letters / Biomacromolecules / Macromolecules Young Investigator Award (2022). Rebekka’s research interests broadly encompass polymer synthesis, with unique contributions including the development of organometallic polymers of the main group, control of polymer tacticity, and the synthesis of functional materials inaccessible from traditional feedstocks.

Dominik Konkolewicz, Associate Editor

Miami University, USA

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3828-5481

Dominik is currently a Professor of Chemistry at Miami University in Oxford Ohio (USA). He earned a PhD from the University of Sydney in 2011, advised by Prof. Sébastien Perrier, and completed postdoctoral work at Carnegie Mellon University, in the group of Prof. Krzysztof Matyjaszewski. He has led a team of 10-15 polymer chemists and materials scientists at Miami University since 2014.

His research interests lie at the intersection of polymerization kinetics, macromolecular engineering, biohybrids, and responsive materials. The Konkolewicz group designs polymer materials from a mechanistic perspective, with research efforts across dynamic covalent and non-covalent chemistry, biomaterials and bioconjugates, and light-driven polymerization and degradation reactions. Particular focus areas are at the intersection of polymer science and sustainability, and polymers interacting with biomolecules.

Zhibo Li, Associate editor

Qingdao University of Science and Technology, China

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9512-1507

Zhibo Li obtained his B.S. (1998) and Master (2001) degree from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). He then obtained his Ph.D. working on self-assembly of triblock copolymer in the Chemistry Department, University of Minnesota 2006. He then spent two and half years at UCLA as a postdoctoral scholar.

In 2009, he became a professor in the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and moved to the Qingdao University of Science and Technology in 2015. He was winner of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (2012), and became the Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (2018).

His research interests include design and synthesis of stimuli-responsive polypeptides, preparation of biodegradable polyesters from biobased monomers, developing organocatalysts and phosphazene  superbase for ring opening (co)polymerization of cyclic esters and epoxides, and studying the self-assembly of copolymers with multi-hydrogen bonding interactions.

Zi-Chen Li, Associate editor

Peking University, China

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0746-9050

Zi-Chen Li received his B.A. degree from Shandong University in 1987 and his M.Sci. degree from the Institute of Chemistry, CAS, in 1990. In 1995, he completed his PhD in Polymer Chemistry under the direction of Professor Fu-Mian Li at Peking University (PKU).

During his doctoral studies, he stayed at Waseda University, Japan, for a year as an exchanging student. After two years (1995-1996) postdoctoral research at PKU and Waseda University, he became a faculty member at PKU in 1997, and was promoted to professor in 2002. His primary research interests currently include new polymerization methods, stimuli-responsive polymers and their biomedical applications, and the controlled degradation of polymers.

Haritz Sardon, Associate editor

University of the Basque Country, Spain

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6268-0916

Haritz Sardon is an associate professor at the University of Basque Country since 2021 and a Group leader at POLYMAT. He graduated from the University of Basque Country in 2011 with honors before joining the group of Dr. Hedrick at  IBM-­‐Almaden Research Center as a postdoc in 2012, where he spent 2 years.

In 2014 he returned to Spain with a Spanish Ministry grant and joined POLYMAT as group leader. Haritz Sardon has participated in 145 peer-reviewed publications, with more than 70 as corresponding authors. The impact of his work can be measured by increasing the number of citations near 2000 in 2023. He has been awarded several awards including the ACS Macromolecules Young Investigator Award, the Excellence of Young Researcher in Chemistry Award by the Spanish Royal Society (2021) and the Excellence of Young Researcher in Polymers Award by the Grupo Español de Polímeros (2020).

Haritz's overall research aims to prepare new functional polymeric materials using sustainable polymerization processes. Specifically, his investigations involve the use of green polymerization processes such as monomers from plastic recycling, reagents from renewable sources or the use of less hazardous organocatalysts.