CNRS Chemistry welcomes Bert Meijer as an Ambassador in Chemical Sciences

What drove you from the field of polymers to supramolecular materials ?

After studying organic chemistry in Groningen with a keen interest in stereochemistry, I worked at two industrial laboratories for 10 years. There, I was introduced to polymer chemistry and functional materials, a new field for me. At the beginning of my academic career in Eindhoven, I focussed on closing the gap between small and large molecules. I called it macro-organic chemistry and using different aspects of supramolecular chemistry was a logical choice. Supramolecular chemistry was well developed and so were specific interactions between polymers. But the idea of making discrete oligomers, controlling their assembly and chirality and making polymer materials through the directional interactions between small molecules was new at that time. It lead to the field of supramolecular polymers. More generally, the idea of using all possible supramolecular interactions to make functional materials inspires our group.     

What future outcomes do you expect in the next 5 to 10 years for functional supramolecular systems ?

Although the concept of supramolecular systems and materials is now well established and many groups around the world are coming up with new discoveries and insights, I think that we are only at the beginning. Many new applications are indeed emerging. For instance, our supramolecular polymers can be used as adaptive biomaterials for tissue engineering or as easy processed and recycled materials. Interesting optoelectronic properties can also be obtained in functional supramolecular materials. The idea of mimicking life is another interesting emerging challenge. Simply put, life is nothing but a complex interplay of millions of molecules using supramolecular interactions. Unravelling this molecular complexity is one of my dreams. We now have many examples in which our synthetic systems behave very similarly to natural systems and, again, we hope that the gap between natural and synthetic systems and materials will disappear in the future.

As a CNRS ambassador of Chemical Sciences, what are you most looking forward to during your French conference tour ?

Besides sharing our research with the many laboratories I visit, I am really looking forward to meeting my colleagues and especially the many students, postdocs and young faculty. I am very curious about their research and I hope we can inspire each other to make our work as useful and insightful as possible. The responsibility of science for all the challenges of our society is immense and we need to come up with useful solutions of the many problems we face. Finally, it is a real honour for me to be CNRS ambassador in the country I admire so much and where I have holidayed since my early childhood and still do.