The Stairs Lecture in Chemistry
The Stairs Lecture in Chemistry, the first endowed lecture series in Chemistry at Trent University, was created by Trent Professor Emeritus Dr. Robert Stairs and his late wife, Sibyl. The biennial lecture series enables Trent to invite distinguished scientists to speak on their research and to showcase the field of Chemistry.
Nanoparticles from the Controlled Crystallization of Polymers: Recent Advances and Applications
Ian Manners
Department of Chemistry, University of Victoria
Nanoparticles possess widths ca. 1000 times less than that of human hair and have many potential applications in fields as diverse as electronics to cancer therapy. However, their preparation has posed many challenges to chemists. In this lecture, the creation of polymer-based nanoparticles with a wide variety of uses will be described using a new method termed “crystallization-driven self-assembly” (CDSA). This process involves the use of crystallization to create nanoparticles with different shapes, controlled dimensions, and tailored functions. The CDSA method is attracting growing attention worldwide, and in this lecture, recent work on 1D nanofibers, 2D platelets, and more complex nanoparticles with applications in areas such as light harvesting, catalysis, and biomedicine will be discussed.
Date: Tuesday, March 14, 2023
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Venue: Bagnani Hall, Traill College
About Ian Manners
Ian Manners is Canadian and British. He was born in London, England and, after receiving his B.Sc. and Ph.D. in the UK he conducted postdoctoral work in Germany and then in the USA. He joined the University of Toronto, Canada as an Assistant Professor in 1990 and was promoted to Full Professor in 1995 and was made a Canada Research Chair in 2001. In 2006 he returned to the UK to take up a Chair at the University of Bristol in Inorganic, Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry supported by an EU Marie Curie Chair. In 2018 he was awarded a Canada 150 Research Chair at the University of Victoria, Canada on Vancouver Island where he has set up a new research group.
Ian’s research interests broadly focus on synthetic problems at molecular, macromolecular, and longer length scales. His current research projects include catalytic main group chemistry and main group polymers, functional metallopolymers, crystallization-driven self-assembly of polymers, and nanoelectronics, catalysis, and nanomedicine with soft materials. He is the recipient of a wide range of national and international awards including an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (from the US), the Steacie Prize (from Canada), the RSC Award in Main Group Chemistry, and a Humboldt Research Award from Germany. Most recently he received the RSC de Gennes Prize (2017), the Henry Marshall Tory Medal of the Royal Society of Canada (2021), and a 1000 Talents Award from China (2018) to support a Distinguished Visiting Professorship and satellite lab at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Ian’s work is documented in over. 800 career publications (including over 35 in Science and Nature group journals and over 110 in J. Am. Chem. Soc.) and 4 books and has been presented in over 600 invited lectures worldwide and his work is widely cited (H-index = 119). He is an elected member of both the Canadian and the British National Academies of Science and also the European Academy of Science (EURASC).
For more information, contact Babin Joy, at babinjoy@trentu.ca.