Physical Chemistry of Polymers

Sebastian Seiffert is full professor for physical chemistry of polymers at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz. He obtained his PhD from Clausthal University of Technology (2007), with research on chain dynamics in semidilute polymer solutions and gels in the group of Wilhelm Oppermann. After spending another year in Clausthal as a lecturer on polymer physical chemistry (2008), Sebastian became a postdoc in the group of Dave Weitz at Harvard as a fellow of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2009–2010), researching on microfluidics and microgels. Upon returning to Germany, he headed a junior research group at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (2011–2014) as a Liebig fellow of the German Fund of the Chemical Industry (FCI). His first faculty appointment was as associate professor for supramolecular polymer materials at Freie Universität Berlin (2014–2016). In 2016, he followed a call to Mainz to take over the chair of physical chemistry of polymers formerly occupied by Manfred Schmidt [1995–2015], Helmuth Möhwald [1987–1993], and Erhard Fischer [1966–1983]. Sebastian’s work was honored with the Reimund Stadler Award of the German Chemical Society (GDCh), an annual award by the Association of German University Professors in Chemistry (ADUC), and a young investigator award by the Polymer Networks Group (PNG). His passion for teaching has been laid down in several textbooks.