2025: Responsive Polymers and Active Matter
Top row (L to R): Prof. Alfred Crosby, Prof. Giorgio Volpe, Dr. John Grasmeder, Prof. Ramin Golestanian, Prof. Mark Miodownik, Prof. Steve Eichorn
Middle row (L to R): Prof. Helen Gleeson, Prof. Laure Kayser, Dr. Roxanne Kieltyka, Prof. Guillaume de Bo, Prof. Shohei Saito, Prof. Mohand Saed
Front row (L to R): Prof. Lorna Dougan, Dr. Isabella Guido, Prof. Richard Jones
Inset (top right): Prof. Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez.
Sunday 27th April to Thursday 1st May 2025
Shrigley Hall Hotel, Pott Shrigley, Cheshire
Programme Organisers: Prof. Richard Jones, University of Manchester and Prof. Lorna Dougan, University of Leeds.
Monday 28th April | ||
| 09:00 | Professor Athene Donald, Chair, HPRG (University of Cambridge) Welcome to the 63rd Meeting of the High Polymer Research Group | |
|---|---|---|
| Session 1 | ||
| Chair - Professor Lorna Dougan | ||
| 09.20 | Dr John Grasmeder (Victrex) Industry adoption of thermoplastic composites – challenges and opportunities. | |
| 10.20 | Coffee | |
| Session 2: Soft Actuators | ||
| Chair – Dr Michael Elwell | ||
| 10:45 | Professor Helen Gleeson (University of Leeds) Liquid crystal elastomers as metamaterials | |
| 11:45 | Professor Mohand Saed (University of Cambridge) Liquid Crystalline Elastomers: Smart Material Platform for Actuation and Energy Dissipation Applications | |
| 12:45 | Lunch | |
| 15:15 - 17:00 | Coffee and Tea | |
| Session 3: Living Systems | ||
| Chair – Prof Richard Jones | ||
| 17:00 | Professor Ramin Golestanian (University of Oxford) Non-reciprocal active-matter: a tale of 'loving hate, brawling love' across the scales | |
| 18:00 | Dr Isabella Guido (University of Surrey) Self-organisation of living materials and bioinspired systems | |
| ≈19.15 | (HPRG Council Meeting, Brabazon Suite) | |
Tuesday April 29th | ||
| Session 4: Close to market | ||
| Chair – Dr Amy Goddard | ||
| 09.10 | Professor Steve Eichhorn (University of Bristol) Modifying Cellulose to Make Self-Healing Films | |
| 10.10 | Coffee - speakers are asked to assemble on main staircase with the Chairman for a photograph that will be placed on the website. | |
| Session 5: Engineering Bioinspired Systems | ||
| Chair – Dr Jennifer Garden | ||
| 10:45 | Professor Alfred Crosby (University of Massachusetts Amherst) Control vs. Autonomy in Soft Matter Movement | |
| 11:45 | Professor Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez (University of Glasgow) Engineered viscoelasticity in stem cell microenvironments | |
| 12:45 | Lunch | |
| 15:15 - 17:00 | Coffee and Tea | |
| Session 6: Information Processing in Materials | ||
| Chair – Professor Cameron Alexander | ||
| 17:00 | Professor Laure Kayser (University of Delaware) Stimuli-Responsive Polymers for Organic Bioelectronics | |
| 18:00 | Dr Roxanne Kieltyka (Leiden University) Squaramide-based supramolecular biomaterials | |
Wednesday April 30th | ||
| Session 7 | ||
| Chair – Dr Neal Williams | ||
| 09.10 | Professor Giorgio Volpe (University College London) Actuating Droplets for Self-assembly and Materials Deposition | |
| 10.10 | Coffee | |
| Session 8 | ||
| Chair – Dr Clare Mahon | ||
| 10:45 | Professor Guillaume de Bo (University of Manchester) Controlling reactivity under tension | |
| 11:45 | Professor Shohei Saito (Osaka University) Ratiometric Force Probe and Photomelting Materials | |
| 12:45 | Lunch | |
| 15:15 - 17:15 | Coffee and Tea | |
| Session 9: Animate materials | ||
| Chair – Professor Athene Donald | ||
| 17:15 | Professor Mark Miodownik (UCL) Animate materials and their role in engineering a more sustainable future | |
| 19:15 | Drinks Reception (Tilden Suite) | |
| 20:00 | Conference Dinner (Tilden Suite) | |
The High Polymer Research Group is grateful to the following companies and organisations for their support of the 2025 conference Responsive Polymers and Active Matter, our 63rd annual conference:
SILVER sponsor:
UNILEVER is one of the world's largest consumer goods companies, driven by our purpose to make sustainable living commonplace. 3.4 billion people in 190 countries use one or more of our branded Personal Care, Beauty and Wellbeing, Home Care, Nutrition or Ice Cream products every day. We have had a very strong record in innovation ever since Lord Lever industrialised soap manufacture over 100 years ago. In 2021 we spent €847m on R&D employing over 5,000 experts in 60 countries building on a portfolio of 20,000 patents protecting our ideas. A significant proportion of that effort is devoted to ensuring our products are fully sustainable and kind to our planet without compromising the needs and expectations of our consumers. We are proud to say 50% of senior R&D roles are held by women and 70% of our innovations are enabled through a global network of innovation partners.
BRONZE sponsors:
Asynt: Providing world-leading technologies for scientific research, Asynt's unique range of innovative products and services are developed by chemists for chemists.
Our highly versatile DrySyn heating blocks provide brilliant thermal performance without the associated risks of using standard oil-based systems and, when teamed with the Asynt CondenSyn air-condenser, will not only help save the environment but will also save you money.
Our other areas of expertise include sample preparation, pressure reactors, parallel synthesis, Flow Chemistry, Photochemistry, evaporation and purification and our fully-customisable ReactoMate jacketed reactor systems allow scale-up from 100mL up to 100L, providing a safe and simple solution to your process development needs.
At Asynt we are committed to investing in new technologies that respond to the real demands of industry and academia. Effective. Sustainable. Safe.
CRODA: Croda create, make and sell speciality chemicals that industries and consumers everywhere depend on. Croda are driven by a focus on our customers, collaborative working, and the ability to think differently, to find new and sustainable ways to satisfy unmet needs. Croda are a global company with over 6,100 passionate employees in manufacturing sites, laboratories and offices worldwide, working with a shared Purpose: using smart science to improve lives.
Diamond Light Source is the UK’s national synchrotron. Whether it’s fragments of ancient paintings or unknown virus structures, at the synchrotron, scientists can study their samples using a machine that is 10,000 times more powerful than a traditional microscope.
Diamond is one of the most advanced scientific facilities in the world, and its pioneering capabilities are helping to keep the UK at the forefront of scientific research.
Polymers is an Open Access Polymer Science Journal offering an interdisciplinary forum for publishing papers which advance the fields of (i) polymerization methods, (ii) theory, simulation, and modeling, (iii) understanding of new physical phenomena, (iv) advances in characterization techniques, and (v) harnessing of self-assembly and biological strategies for producing complex multifunctional structures.
Polymer Chemistry The home for the most innovative and exciting polymer chemistry, with an emphasis on the synthesis and applications of polymers.
RSC Applied Polymers The application of natural and synthetic polymers. A gold open access journal with all fees currently waived.
Soft Matter An interdisciplinary journal focusing on innovative soft matter topics through original research and reviews.
Xenocs provides complete solutions for characterizing the nanostructure and morphology of materials to help our customers in their research, development, and production of advanced materials.
The product portfolio of the company includes innovative high performance instruments that combine Small and Wide Angle X-ray Scattering techniques (SAXS/WAXS), and associated software.
Co-founded in 2000 by Peter Høghøj and Frederic Bossan, as a spinoff company from the Institute Laue Langevin, in Grenoble, France, Xenocs supplies its solutions to leading research and development institutions around the world, both academic & industrial.
Xenocs has subsidiaries in the US, China and Denmark, and work closely with a strong network of distributors worldwide ensuring local support and close contact to customers.
Visit our website on www.xenocs.com