Christopher Barner-Kowollik

A graduate in chemistry from Göttingen University, Germany, Christopher Barner-Kowollik joined the University of New South Wales in early 2000 rising to lead the Centre for Advanced Macromolecular Design in 2006 as one of its directors. He returned to Germany to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in 2008, where he established and led a German Research Council funded Centre of Excellence in soft matter synthesis and served as the Head of School of the School of Chemical Technology and Polymer Chemistry at the KIT. Following a period as an adjunct professor and collaborator with QUT, he moved to QUT in early 2017 and established QUT’s Soft Matter Materials Laboratory, now one of the world’s premier macromolecular laboratories. Over this 20-year career to date, he attracted over $37M in funding from the German Research Council, the Helmholtz Association, the Australian Research Council and the private sector. He has developed and supported highly collaborative large teams, often across continents. He authored over 700 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals (cited over 30,000 times) and was plenary and invited speaker at over 220 conferences. His research achievements have been recognized by an array of national and international awards including the coveted Erwin Schrödinger Award of the German Helmholtz Association, the Belgian Polymer Medal, the United Kingdom Macro Medal, the David Craig medal as well as national awards by the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, the Royal Society of New South Wales, an ARC Professorial Fellowship and an ARC Laureate Fellowship. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute.