ADUC Prize for Sebastian Seiffert

The Working Group of German University Chemistry Professors (ADUC/Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Universitätsprofessoren und –Professorinnen für Chemie) has awarded its 2013 prize for instructors completing their professorial credentials to Dr. habil. Sebastian Seiffert. Seiffert heads a group of junior scientists at the HZB Institute for Soft Matter and Functional Materials, as well as teaching at the Freie Universität Berlin as an adjunct professor. He will be assuming an associate professorship for supramolecular polymeric materials beginning in April that will be jointly financed by HZB and the Freie Universität Berlin.

Seiffert and his team conduct research on switchable microgel particles that are finding increasing application in a variety of fields, such as in artificial environments for living cells, pharmacological transport mechanisms in medicine, self-healing materials in materials engineering, and in sensors. He is especially interested in how the behaviour of these compounds depends upon their nano-structure. He investigates this interdependency using neutron and photon instrumentation at BER II and BESSY II, the two major facilities operated by HZB in Berlin. His research work was also supported during the last two years by the Nano-Scale Functional Materials Focus Area of the Freie Universität Berlin.

Seiffert completed his professorial credential at FUB in October 2013. The ADUC Prize is the second major award for his work after receipt of the Reimund Stadler Prize. “Our success would not have been possible without the productive synergy between Freie Universität Berlin and HZB, and especially without the first-class working environment at our Institute for Soft Matter and Functional Materials”, Seiffert emphasises.

The ADUC recognises up to three individuals working toward their professorial credentials or junior professors annually whose publications demonstrate originality and are scientifically important. The prize will be awarded 10 March 2014 at the Chemistry Professors’ Conference taking place this year at the Technical University of Paderborn.