Junior Researcher Award for César Rodriguez-Emmenegger

Dr. César Rodriguez-Emmenegger works as an independent research group leader at the DWI - Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials. He has been awarded the Macromolecular Rapid Communications Junior Researcher Award for his research in polymer chemistry.

This award is given to innovative scientists who are at the beginning of their independent careers and are researching new areas in the chemistry, physics and application of polymer systems. The prize is awarded under the auspices of the Macromolecular Colloquium in Freiburg.

The main focus of César Rodriguez-Emmenegger's research is on the development of synthetic and biohybrid adaptive interfaces that can interact with the environment, as well as being inspired by the way living systems interact and communicate. His overall goal is to understand how to balance general repulsion with specific multivalent and cooperative attractive interactions. In doing so, he aims to develop super-selectivity at interfaces and apply this knowledge to the medical field. To achieve this, his team fuses expertise from the fields of synthetic polymer and supramolecular chemistry, physical chemistry, biophysics and engineering. In particular, he and his team are interested in the synthesis of macromolecules with precise chemical composition, architecture and topology. These macromolecules are used to study and develop antifouling, antimicrobial surfaces, coatings that interact with blood and modulate uncontrolled clotting, and active synthetic cells.