Distinguished Women in Science: Professor Anne McNeil, University of Michigan

Distinguished Women in Science: Professor Anne McNeil, University of Michigan (Host: Naomi Clayman)

“Matchmaking" Catalysts with Monomers to Access High-Performance Conjugated Polymers"

About the Seminar

The discovery of living, chain-growth methods for synthesizing conjugated polymers has, in principle, enabled access to new materials with varying sequences, lengths and end-groups. In practice, however, expanding these methods to structurally complex monomers has been limited. One reason is that the polymerization mechanism relies on the catalyst to reliably ring-walk over the p-system without undergoing unproductive pathways (e.g., trapping, insertion or dissociation). Recently, we have begun identifying the most significant unproductive pathway for each monomer using the “growing string” computational method. This information is then used to play “matchmaker” by designing a specific metal/ligand combination that can bypass the unproductive pathways. This approach, as well as applications of the new materials that can now be accessed, will be highlighted in this talk.

About the Speaker

Prof. Anne McNeil was born and raised in Buffalo, NY. During high school she moved to Virginia with her family. She attended, and then graduated from, the College of William and Mary with a BS in Chemistry (in 1999) where she did undergraduate research with Prof. Rob Hinkle. Her graduate work was in physical organic chemistry with Prof. Dave Collum at Cornell University where she earned her PhD in 2005. She was a LOreal post-doctoral fellow with Prof. Tim Swager at MIT from 2005–2007. In 2007, she joined the faculty at UM where she is now an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Chemistry and Macromolecular Science and Engineering, as well as an HHMI Professor. She has won numerous awards for excellence in both teaching and research. Her most recent award was being inducted as a Fellow into the AAAS. She is also the proud mom of two wonderful children – Evie (5) and Emily (4).

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