Prof. Christopher Barner-Kowollik has been honored with this year’s international BPG award from the Belgian Polymer group . The BPG brings researchers from universities and industry together and stimulates interactions between Belgian and international polymer scientists.Christopher Barner-Kowollik received the award for his outstanding contributions to polymer science and his active cooperations with Belgian polymer scientists Filip Du Prez , Ghent University, Richard Hoogenboom, Ghent University, Philippe Dubois, Mons University , and Thomas Junkers, Hasselt University.
Professor Barner-Kowollik leads the Macromolecular Architectures Research Team at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. The focus of his group is on the controlled synthesis of complex functional macromolecules, the mechanism and kinetics of polymerization processes, surface modification on the nanometer scale, multidimensional chromatography methods, and mass spectrometry of polymers.
On the latter topic he recently edited a book together with Till Gründling, Jana Falkenhagen, and Steffen Weidner: Mass Spectrometry in Polymer Chemistry, an up-to-date insight into mass-spectrometric polymer analysis with application details of the instrumentation. His interest in the synthesis of complex macromolecular architectures via controlled polymerization processes led him to edit the Handbook of RAFT Polymerization which starts with the fundamentals of living free radical polymerization, gives insights in the mechanism and kinetics of the RAFT process, and provides the reader with design possibilities via RAFT polymerization.
Aside from synthesis and characterization of polymers, the Barner-Kowollik group researches nano-engineering and biomedical applications such as drug delivery vectors and bio assays.
