SYNTHETIC APPROACHES TO SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS

Abstract

Plastics have completely transformed our lives, while at the same time having a significant negative impact on our environment. Our research is aimed at developing synthetic approaches to more sustainable polymers. This talk will highlight two projects ongoing within our group. In both projects, we aim to use synthetic chemistry to give a current high-production-volume plastic a second life, attenuating its impact on the environment.

Biography

Anne McNeil is the Carol A. Fierke Collegiate Professor of Chemistry and Macromolecular Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan. She is also an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and HHMI Professor. Her current research interests include chemical recycling of waste plastic, methods for capturing microplastics, and identifying new materials for redox flow batteries. She has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, AAAS Fellow, Sloan Fellow, Dreyfus Fellow, Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award, Claudia Joan Alexander Trailblazer Award, and the Provost’s Teaching Innovation Prize, among others. Prior to Michigan, Anne was a L’Oreal Post-doc Fellow with Prof. Tim Swager at MIT and earned her PhD from Cornell with Prof. Dave Collum, and graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Chemistry from the College of William and Mary (1999).