九州影院

Emily Pentzer

What makes a stand-out manuscript? In this interview, we asked award-winning associate professor Emily Pentzer, Editor-in-Chief of RSC Applied Polymers, to share the advice she would give to authors. 

As a prominent voice in the field, what emerging research areas in polymer science are you most excited about right now? What kind of groundbreaking submissions would you love to see in RSC Applied Polymers in the next few years? And how do you stay up to date with new research and trends? 

I think as a community we are going to start seeing broader impact of artificial intelligence in polymer science, including understanding structure-property-application relationships. If we can understand how the polymer behaves and changes under use, or over time/wear-and-tear, then we can design better ones. This could really have impact in the area of sustainability, the rapid development of new polymers, and the use of polymers in applications where we have typically relied on other materials. 

For example, the Cameron group used , and the Sardon group used . I think we will continue to see growth in the use of polymers for biological mimics, such as mucin, as well as new ways to used polymers for energy management and separation of complex mixtures, such as recycling of batteries. I like to learn what areas other researchers are working in by scrolling through specific journals, or, if I鈥檓 lucky enough, sitting in a conference room in a symposium where I鈥檓 not familiar with the topic.

I love that polymer science can be applied across so many different areas.

What first drew you to polymer science, and what keeps you passionate about the field? Can you share a proud moment or breakthrough from your own research career? 

I always thought I would do natural product synthesis as a PhD student because I really loved organic chemistry. But once I was introduced to polymers, I fell in love with the idea of using organic reactions to make polymers with different properties. With polymer science, we have the opportunity to combine synthesis and processing to control properties. One thing my group thinks a lot about right now is using the same polymer and using different printing conditions to vary mechanical and degradation properties. Further, my PhD work focused on making new polymers for drug delivery and my postdoc work focused on using polymers for solar energy harvesting; I love that polymer science can be applied across so many different areas and we have the opportunity to identify a problem, or an opportunity, and think about how to solve it, or at least better understand the challenge to solving it.

Where do you see both the field of applied polymers, and the journal, heading in the next decade? 

In the next decade, RSC Applied Polymers will continue to serve the community through strong peer review protocols and will become the flagship journal for publishing work in the application of polymers. Natural polymers are abundant and synthetic polymers make modern life possible. My hope is that I can鈥檛 currently imagine all the ways in which polymers will play a role in enhancing human health and safety over the next decade, and that scientists and engineers work together to leverage the diverse expertise needed to design, develop, and apply polymers across biology, energy, and materials.  

What are your top tips for effectively communicating research findings, both in publications and to a wider audience? 

My number one tip would be to have each presentation or publication stand on its own, as the audience or reader may not know much about the background. Starting from fundamentals can help the audience and community understand your thought process and motivation, which will not only help educate researchers who are new to the field but also give the opportunity to think about collaborations.

It can be exciting to see how an idea grows and expands beyond what we were thinking yesterday.

Finally, if you could offer one single piece of career advice to a young researcher with a promising idea, what would it be? 

My advice would be to remain persistently curious. Having a promising idea is a great feeling, and sometimes we (myself included) can hold too tightly to an idea rather than let that idea evolve with the collection of more information (or data). At conferences and seminars, show up and be engaged and it can be exciting to see how an idea grows and expands beyond what we were thinking yesterday.