UC San Diego NanoEngineering Leads the Way to Solving the Plastics Waste Problem

Featured Speaker: Professor Jonathan Pokorski

 The synthesis of molecular biology and materials science to make new materials for biomedical applications holds great promise. One area in which this has been particularly useful is in the marriage of protein and polymer science to generate new hybrid materials for drug delivery, imaging and vaccination. Of recent interest and importance is the development of a technique to make plastics biodegradable. We have all heard about the ocean gyre of plastic waste and the large deposits at the bottom of the ocean. This and the discovery of microplastics in human tissue is of great concern. This lecture will discuss how the Polorski lab has been able to add bacteria to plastics in a way to make it biodegradable following its useful life.

Presenter Biography

Jonathan Pokorski is a Professor in the NanoEngineering Department at UC San Diego. He has worked at the Scripps Research Institute where as a postdoctoral fellow he was awarded an NIH fellowship and later an NIH Pathway to Independence Award. He has received a number of other awards and fellowships for his work and is now funded by the NIH, NSF and the American Chemical Society. He received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Northwestern University

Coordinator: Jerry Kent