Macromolecular Engineering

The book provides a state of the art description of the synthetic tools to precisely control various aspects of macromolecular structure including chain composition, microstructure, functionality and topology as well as modern characterization techniques at molecular and macroscopic level for various properties of well-defined (co)polymers in solution, bulk and at surfaces. The book addresses also the correlation of molecular structure with macroscopic properties additionally affected by processing. Finally, some emerging applications for the (co)polymers are highlighted.

Krzysztof Matyjaszewski is currently J.C. Warner University Professor of Natural Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA. He is also Director of Center for Macromolecular Engineering at CMU and adjunct professor at University of Pittsburgh and at Polish Academy of Sciences. He is the editor of "Progress in Polymer Science" and "Central European Journal of Chemistry". His research group is involved in several areas of macromolecular engineering, especially in synthesis of various well-defined copolymers using atom transfer radical polymerization and other controlled/living polymerization techniques. He is author of over 400 peer-reviewed publications, over 50 book chapters, 8 books and 26 US patents.

Yves Gnanou is currently the Director of the "Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques" at Bordeaux University (France) and Director of Research with the "Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique". He is also an adjunct professor at University of Florida (Department of Chemistry-Gainesville) and was a visiting professor at the Massachussets Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA. His research interests focus on the study of the mechanism of chain polymerizations and the development of miscellaneous polymeric architectures by novel synthetic methods. He is author of more than 160 peer-reviewed publications in the field of polymer chemistry, 1 book and 16 patents.

Ludwik Leibler is currently Director of Research with the "Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique" and Professor of Soft Matter and Chemistry at Ecole de Physique et Chimie Industrielles in Paris. His background includes stints in academia, in government, and in industrial laboratories. His current projects deal with macromolecular and supramolecular systems and in particular with blends, copolymers, and networks. He authored more than 130 papers in peer-reviewed journals. In 2004, Dr. Leibler has been elected as Foreign Associate of National Academy of Engineering (USA).