Introducing the new Editorial Board Chair of Nanoscale Horizons

Editorial Board Chair, Katharina Landfester and Managing Editor, Charlotte Marshall

We are delighted to announce that from December 2020, Professor Katharina Landfester will be joining the journal as the new Editorial Board Chair! As one of the Directors of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Germany, Katharina publishes world-leading research in the area of functional colloids for biomaterial applications. We look forward to working with Katharina in this new role to ensure the success of the journal in the coming years.

To mark this announcement, Managing Editor Charlotte Marshall spoke to Katharina about how and why she pursued a career in nanoscience, and her aspirations for the journal in the years to come.

CM: What attracted you to pursue a career in nanoscience and how did you get to where you are now?

KL: Actually, my career in nanoscience started with my Masters thesis in Strasbourg. My task was to design core–shell particles consisting of a soft core and a hard shell for potential applications as impact modifiers. It was so fascinating for me to create these small particles that we could only see by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The size, the core-to-shell ratio and the choice of the materials changed the impact modifying properties significantly. I was convinced that I wanted to stay in nanoscience. During the PhD I characterized the core–shell nanoparticles by solid-state NMR and TEM. I could reveal that the interphase between the core and the shell was of great importance for the properties of the materials. After my PhD, I was caught by nanoscience and I could not leave it alone since then. Now, my work covers a wide range of expertise, ranging from polymer synthesis and analytics, catalysts, photonics, to synthetic biology. I currently focus on developing strategies to build molecularly controlled complex functional polymeric systems with applications in medical treatments, sensing, and biochemical/chemical synthesis.

CM: Why did you choose to specialize in your specific research field?

KL: My broad mission is to create polymeric systems for sensing materials, functional drug delivery, photocatalysis and synthetic bottom-up synthesized cell-like systems. With my team, I can elegantly generate highly complex, functional and stimuli-responsive nanoparticles and nanocapsules by exploiting tools and concepts from different disciplines and by combining expertise from organic chemistry, and polymer and materials science. In this way, hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecules can be forced to react at the interfaces of the droplets. Typically, classical polyaddition reactions or more recently bio-orthogonal “click” reactions or polycondensations, were successfully performed in this manner. We thereby combine classical polymerization strategies with the pressing needs of biocompatibility, drug delivery, sustainability, and self-healing capability.

CM: What is your biggest passion outside of science?

KL: I like doing sports (running, hiking, swimming, skiing). I like making music (I play the flute) and I like working in our garden – and that all with my wonderful family: my husband and our two daughters.

CM: What career would you have chosen if you had not taken this career path?

KL: Good question. It depends on the time point. Before I decided to become a chemist, I thought of becoming a musician. However, when I started to study chemistry, I always wanted to become a researcher. I was always curious to discover things (on the nanoscale!) and wanted to understand them.

CM: Which of your publications are you most proud of, and which is your favourite piece of your own research?

KL: I am still most proud of my first publications as an independent researcher. With a deep physico-chemical understanding of how to create stable emulsions, I developed the miniemulsion process to manufacture nanoparticles and nanocontainers, and supply them with a broad palette of functions which cannot be obtained in this perfection by other means: tunable size, high homogeneity of the particle size and structure, high stability in a liquid environment, high solid content, high loading capacity for many materials, adjustable interactions with synthetic and biological materials, upscalable to ton scale.

CM: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing researchers who work in your field?

KL: There are so many challenges. But, if I can just pick one: it is a vision to combine very different fields of colloidal chemistry, medicine and photonics, in order to produce smart colloids with increasingly specific properties and incorporated nanosensors, to deeply understand the interplay of property and function, the interaction of the nanocarriers with their environment and therefore to employ them for new materials science and biomedical applications. The ideal nanocarrier for biomedical application would be biodegradable and shall circulate freely in the blood until it reaches selectively its place of action, is incorporated and selectively releases the drug or allows diagnostics only at this point, finally being cleared from the body without any trace.

CM: What do you see as the most important scientific achievement of the last decade?

KL: That is hard to answer. I am fascinated by CRISPR Cas and therefore, I am very happy that the Nobel prize this year went to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna.

CM: What are the most exciting Nanoscale Horizons papers that you have read recently?

KL: What I really like is the great variety. Reading Nanoscale Horizons papers is always a pleasure and they give so much insight in different fields on the nanoscale.

CM: Where do you see the journal being in 5 years’ time?

KL: Nanoscale Horizons will definitely play in the top league of journals. As a flagship journal, it will be visible, and highly renowned with many important articles that shape the field of nanoscience and are of relevance for future challenges. I am looking forward to meeting and discussing with people to open even more the horizons for research on the nanoscale.

CM: What's the best piece of advice you’ve been given in your career?

KL: Be always open to everything, be curious and be optimistic.

CM: Why should young people study chemistry?

KL: To provide solutions for environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, to propose alternatives for finite resources, to make sustainable steps in “green” energy, to fight against diseases, to ensure fresh water for all human kind and many more challenges which can only be addressed by motivated young chemists.

 

Katharina Landfester and Charlotte Marshall

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