Polymers display a unique set of properties garnering significant academic and industrial interests and enabling the evolution of a wide range of critical technological areas. The uniqueness of polymer properties stems primarily from their macromolecular nature, while the impressive diversity of application areas they serve is because of the vast variety of chemical and architectural molecular designs that have been developed over the past many years. The need to improve the performance of polymers in existing applications, as well as to carve pathways into new ones, has fuelled continuous innovation in their chemical and architectural designs. Integrating polymers with other materials, such nanomaterials in heterostructure arrangements, is another avenue for creating new functional materials with augmented performances in existing applications and for serving the ever-evolving demands of new application domains. Consequently, there are two fundamental ways in which improved performances can be drawn from or new functions can be imparted to polymers: 1) By rationally building on the evolving understanding of structure-property relationships and creating new molecular designs that are novel at chemical and architectural levels, and 2) By simply modifying the surface chemical nature of the existing polymers in scenarios where the function is solely governed by interfacial interactions. This conversation will be centred around the development of functional materials enabled by the material design strategies that involve the development of organic macromolecules and their covalent and physical integration with molecular and nanoscale systems, alongside the development of surface chemistry tools. The related application areas that will be focused include nanomedicine, bio and chemical sensing, light harvesting and energy conversion technologies, ion transport membranes mimicking biological processes, and environmental remediation. 

Short Biography of the Speaker:

Dr. Basit Yameen completed his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPIP), Germany, and subsequently held an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). He later worked at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, with a research affiliation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is currently a Professor of Chemistry at the Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan.