>>This Seminar will be held in the North Campus Research Complex, Building 32, Auditorium

ABSTRACT
"Designer Soft Materials and Hybrid Functional Interfaces"

This lecture will apply concepts and techniques of organic and polymer chemistry to materials targets, with the objective of producing new and useful structures for fundamental studies. The topics to be presented involve translating synthetic advances to creative materials applications, including the synthesis of new polymer zwitterions (including phosphorylcholines, sulfobetaines, and sulfothetins) that have generated a surprising breadth of advances, ranging from electronic materials to medical devices to injectable therapeutics. Striking properties of these polymers at interfaces will be discussed, including in thin films and in fluids, with focus on the impact of new functional polymers as components of ‘hard-soft’ materials interfaces. In addition, mesoscale materials constructs will be described, including a new kind of “mesoscale block copolymers” (MSBCPs) that are envisaged as larger scale analogs of conventional block copolymers, as well as nanocomposite hydrogels that function as photo-induced surfers and motors at air-fluid interfaces.

BIO
Todd Emrick is a Professor of Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and adjunct faculty member at the UMass Medical School in Worcester, MA. He earned a B.S. in Chemistry from Juniata College in PA and Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry with Philip E. Eaton at the University of Chicago. Following postdoctoral work in polymer synthesis at the University of California Berkeley with Jean Fréchet, he began his independent position at UMass Amherst in 2001. While at UMass, his research has focused on the intersection of organic and polymer chemistry, with a focus on useful outlets in materials science and engineering. Advances from Todd’s laboratories have been recognized by the Carl S. Marvel Award for creative polymer chemistry (ACS Polymer Division), election to the National Academy of Inventors, and selection as the UMass Amherst College of Natural Sciences Outstanding Researcher. He is the prior Director of the NSF-supported Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) on Polymers at UMass Amherst (2008-2017) and is currently an investigator in the NSF Center for Chemomechanical Assembly (CCMA).