Welcome to the news section of our homepage, where updates from the group will be posted. For the latest from the group, please also check our Twitter feed.
More updates and news coming soon...
July 2024: Stephen travels to Bates College in Lewiston, Main, to serve as vice-chair for the GRC on Multiscale Mechanochemistry and Mechanobiology. It was a great experience to co-organize this conference with the 2024 chair Prof. Kerstin Blank and co-vice-chair Prof. Anna Tarakanova. The conference exceeded all our expectations with excellent and highly inspiring contributions from all participants. Big shoes to fill for Anna and Stephen in 2026. Thanks also to Profs Lorna Dougan and Robert Göstl for their willingess to serve as future chairs.
June 2024: Latest results just accepted in Angew. Chem.! Particular thanks go out once more to Derek for all his hard work on this story. Derek developed a new type of supramolecular mechanophore that optically signals mechanical stresses. Arguably, this is the first mechanoresponsive motif with a signal that directly correlates to the stress, and not the strain. This could be very useful for studying the effect of mechanical stresses on all sorts of proccesses, including the fundamental biomechanical processes that allow organisms to adapt to mechanical forces. Read all about it here!!
June 2024: We welcome Ylva Reisinger to the group, who joins us for her BSc. thesis research. She will study the degradation of alkanes by microbes!
May 2024: Stephen travels to MLU Halle on invitation by Prof. Binder to present our research in the Polymer und Soft Matter Seminar ! Lots of exciting discussions with the colleagues in Halle. Thanks for having me and looking forward to the new collaborative initiatives to come!
May 2024: We welcome Niklas Kube to the group, who joins us from Freiburg University and will pursue a MSc. thesis with us. Welcome and lots of success with your research!
April 2024: Successfull review meeting for a big initiative … check back… official news will follow in July.
March 2024: Lots of updates and upgrades in the labs. Amongst other things, we have a certified S1 lab now… Ready to kickstart our completely new work with microbes… Off to new adventures.
August 2023: Latest results just accepted in Adv. Funct. Mater.! Particular thanks go out to Derek for all his hard work and stamina in seeing this through together with a fantastic team of collaborators. Read about the mechanism that allows essentially any polymer to become mechanochromic through the simple addition of tiny quantities of an additive.
August 2023: Stephen travels to the ACS Fall Meeting to give an invited talk in the Polymer Mechanochemistry Symposium organized by Jeff Moore, Robert Göstl, Harm-Anton Klok, and Andreas Herrmann. Two additional talks scheduled to talk about our latest results in polymer recycling and metal-nanoparticle composites. Looking forward to a couple of days of great science!
May 2023: New paper out in ACS Nano! This one has been a long time coming and we are very happy to finally see it published, all thanks to a fantastic collaboration with Prof. Stefan Guldin of UCL. Thanks Stefan and team for making it happen!
April 2023: Stephen has taken over the role of Head of International Relations at the TUM School of Life Sciences from Prof. Langosch.
I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Prof. Langosch, not only for his invaluable guidance during my transition into this new role, but also for his leadership in fostering global alliances and his commitment towards attracting highly talented international students to Weihenstephan. Together with my colleagues in the International Office, we will strive to continuously promote global collaboration with research institutions worldwide that focus on addressing challenges in the research fields of the TUM School of Life Sciences, including climate change, food security, and biodiversity. Our goal is to foster diversity in research and education, attract international talents, and provide innovative programs that meet the needs of future generations.
April 2023: As part of a team led by Prof. Senthold Asseng, we applied for the “project of the century” by the Werner Siemens Foundation (WSS). Our application was successful in the first stage, granting us the WSS Research Award of 1 Mio Euro, which now qualifies us to compete for the WSS Research Centre that will be dedicated to developing technologies for sustainability. More info here.
January 2023: Lots of 'lab building' activities going on and many new projects in the pipeline. Exciting times ahead.
August 2022: Our new homepage is up and running. A big thank you to the TUM LSIT for the help in getting us going and setting this up.
August 2022: The Bioinspired Materials Conference on the theme Natural Materials and Their Bioinspired Counterparts took place in Andermatt, Switzerland. The conference was co-organized by Stephen and Prof. Esther Amstad (EPFL). We had a great time in Andermatt with fantastic talks, outstanding posters, and lots of new collaborations and ideas for all participants. A big thank you to all the funding agencies and the helpers that made this event possible.
July 2022: Stephen gave an invited talk at the Gordon Research Conference on Multiscale Mechanochemistry and Mechanobiology in Ventura, California. Together with Prof. Anna Tarakanova, Stephen was elected to serve as the new vice chair for the next GRC that will take place in 2024.
