China hosts Unilever-RSC International Symposium on Functional Materials Science

Some of the world's leading scientists will come together in China this week for three one day meetings at three different locations.

Each meeting will feature a selection of lectures covering the properties and applications of many different materials given by international scientists, such as Dr Rachel O'Reilly, an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council career acceleration fellow and associate professor of chemistry in at the University of Warwick. Among Dr O'Reilly's lectures will be on how RAFT chemistries are used for the synthesis of chiral nanomaterials.

Other speakers include Professor Alejandro Marangoni from the University of Guelph, Canada. His work concentrates on the physical properties of foods, particularly fat crystallization and structure. His lectures will include a discussion of the pleasures of chocolate. "These new insights will contribute to the knowledge of the nature of fat crystal network in plastic fats at all different length scales and the relationship between these structures at different length scales to the functional properties of edible fats," he said.

Dr Jinfang Wang, Unilever R&D China, Shanghai, China, will be discussing deposition aid polymers for actives' delivery in home and personal care products. "Some functional polymers such as styling polymers can be ingredients delivering consumer benefits directly," says Dr Wang. "Here, new deposition aid polymers are designed and evaluated in HPC products."

Dr Sarah Thomas, international development manager at the RSC, said: "The Royal Society of Chemistry is delighted to be co-organising this International Symposium on Functional Materials Science. We very much appreciate the commitment of Unilever Research China in supporting and co-organising this series of three exciting one day meetings. We thank the hosts for their help with the organisation, Professor Wantai Yang at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology in Beijing, Professor Bo-Geng Li at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou and Professor He Tian at East China University of Chemical Technology.

"Each of the speakers in this symposium is an international expert in the area of materials science that they will present. We hope that these lectures and poster presentations will stimulate the exchange of ideas and experiences between all participants with the theme of functional materials science setting a clear and topical focus for the discussions."

Notes for editors

. The Unilever-RSC International Symposium on Functional Materials Science will be held between November 8-11 2010 in Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai.

. The symposium is supported by Unilever and organised by Unilever, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the three host universities.