ACS Award in Applied Polymer Science for Dirk J. Broer
Never before has a Dutch researcher won this prestigious American prize.
The American Chemical Society (ACS) awards Professor Dirk J. Broer with the 2021 ACS Award in Applied Polymer Science. Professor Broer receives the award for pioneering discoveries in the field of liquid crystalline materials, particularly in the areas of reactive, smart materials for optical and display applications. He will be honored at the awards ceremony on 23 March 2021, in conjunction with the ACS 2021 Spring National Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
The ACS National Awards program is designed to encourage the advancement of chemistry in all its branches, to support research in chemical science and industry, and to promote the careers of chemists. Professor Broer feels ‘enormously honored’ with this prize, which came completely unexpected for him. Broer is a professor in the Stimuli-responsive Functional Materials & Devices group of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry. He’s the first Dutch scientist to win this prestigious American award.
In an interview with Dick Broer last year, Advanced Materials wrote the following about his work that is now being awarded the ACS Award in Applied Polymer Science:
Prof. Dirk Broer is among the pioneers and most active researchers in the field of stimuli-responsive liquid crystal (LC) networks. He is the inventor of reactive mesogens, a class of materials with far-reaching implications in liquid-crystal photonics and in the triumph of LC-based shape-shifting polymers. Together with his team, Prof. Broer continuously produces innovative solutions for controlling and programming new functions into soft responsive materials.