HPRG 63rd Conference: Responsive Polymers and Active Matter

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

09:00Professor Athene Donald, Chair, HPRG (University of Cambridge) Welcome to the 63rd Meeting of the High Polymer Research Group
Session 1
Chair - Professor Matt Gibson
09.20TBC
10.20Coffee
Session 2: Soft Actuators
Chair – Dr Michael Elwell
10:45Professor Helen Gleeson (University of Leeds) Liquid crystal elastomers as metamaterials
11:45Professor Mohand Saed (University of Cambridge) Liquid Crystalline Elastomers: Smart Material Platform for Actuation and Energy Dissipation Applications
12:45Lunch
15:15 - 17:00Coffee and Tea
Session 3: Living Systems
Chair – Prof Richard Jones
17:00Professor Ramin Golestanian (University of Oxford) Non-reciprocal active-matter: a tale of 'loving hate, brawling love' across the scales
18:00Dr 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
09.10TBC
10.10Coffee - 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
10:45Professor Alfred Crosby (University of Massachusetts Amherst) Control vs. Autonomy in Soft Matter Movement
11:45Professor Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez (University of Glasgow) Engineered viscoelasticity in stem cell microenvironments
12:45Lunch
15:15 - 17:00Coffee and Tea
Session 6: Information Processing in Materials
Chair – Professor Lorna Dougan
17:00Professor Laure Kayser (University of Delaware) Stimuli-Responsive Polymers for Organic Bioelectronics
18:00Dr Roxanne Kieltyka (Leiden University) Squaramide-based supramolecular biomaterials

Wednesday April 30th

Session 7
Chair – Dr Neal Williams
09.10TBC
10.10Coffee
Session 8
Chair – Dr Clare Mahon
10:45Professor Guillaume de Bo (University of Manchester) Controlling reactivity under tension
11:45Professor Shohei Saito (Osaka University) Ratiometric Force Probe and Photomelting Materials
12:45Lunch
15:15 - 17:15Coffee and Tea
Session 9: Animate materials
Chair – Dr Rick Anderson
17:15Professor Mark Miodownik (UCL) TBC
19:15Drinks Reception (Tilden Suite)
20:00Conference Dinner (Tilden Suite)

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The banner for our 2025 conference was composed by a deep AI machine learning program using the key words 'responsive polymers and active matter'.

The High Polymer Research Group is grateful to the following companies and organisations for their support of our 2024 conference Polymers in an Age of Data, our 62nd annual conference:

Gold sponsors:

Silver sponsors:

Bronze sponsors:

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