PME Distinguished Colloquium Series - Karen Wooley (TAMU)

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A primary interest in the Wooley laboratory is the production of functional polymers from renewable sources that are capable of reverting to those natural products once their purpose has been served. A long-standing focus has been the development of synthetic methodologies that transform sugars, amino acids, and other natural products into polymer materials. The overall process impacts the need to address end-of-life considerations and the increasing accumulation and associated hazards of plastic pollution from the environmental persistence of non-degradable, petrochemically-sourced polymer systems. Moreover, inherent diversities of natural products provide opportunities to expand the scopes, complexities, and properties of polymers, by utilizing fundamental organic chemistry approaches.