Polymeric and Self Assembled Hydrogels: From Fundamental Understanding to Applications

Oren Scherman is a University Lecturer and Next Generation Fellow in the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis, University of Cambridge. He completed his PhD in 2004 working on ring-opening metathesis polymerisation and tailor-made, functional polymer architectures under the supervision of Professor Robert H. Grubbs at the California Institute of Technology. From here he went to work on supramolecular polymers at the Eindhoven University of Technology with Professors E.W. (Bert) Meijer and Rint P. Sijbesma before moving to his current position at the University of Cambridge. Xian Jun Loh graduated with a PhD from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2009 and is currently a visiting academic at the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge supported by an Agency of Science, Technology and Research, Singapore (A*STAR) Fellowship. He was awarded andA*STAR Graduate Scholarship, A*STAR and received the Pacifichem 2010 Young Scholar Award. His main research interests are in the design of stimuli-responsive polymers for biomedical applications and in chemical education to motivate and nurture aspiring young researchers.