Polymers 2026: Trends, Innovation and Future

University of Almería, Almería, Spain;
Dr. Amadeo R. Fernández-Alba is a Full Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Almería, Spain. He is Director of the EU Reference Laboratory for Pesticide Residues in Fruits & Vegetables (EURL-FV) and founder of the research group “AGR-159 Pesticide Residues” of the Junta de Andalucía. His research over many years has focused on the development and validation of methods for analysing pesticide residues and other chemical contaminants in food and the environment, using advanced mass spectrometry and chromatography techniques. He has authored well over 300 peer-reviewed articles, supervised many PhD theses, and contributed to numerous national and international research projects and quality control panels.

University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands;
Dr. Katja Loos is a Professor at the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, holding the chair in Macromolecular Chemistry and New Polymeric Materials. She currently serves as President of the European Polymer Federation (2023–2025). Her research focuses on the design, synthesis, and characterization of novel macromolecules and sustainable polymer production methods, including biocatalysis and controlled polymerization techniques.

University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France;
Dr. Maria Nerantzaki is a Junior Group Leader at the Laboratory of Chemistry of Informational Macromolecules (LCIM), Supramolecular Science and Engineering Institute (ISIS), Université de Strasbourg, France. She leads an independent research group focusing on the development of sequence-defined polymers and bio-hybrid materials, combining precision polymer synthesis with DNA nanotechnology. Her team is currently working on the “MoleculArXiv” project, which aims to store large-scale data in DNA and artificial polymers.

National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore;
Dr. Sing Swee Leong is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore. Swee Leong has been in the field of advanced manufacturing for more than 14 years. His research interests are enabling material development while creating strategic and sustainable values for Industry 4.0 and beyond through the use and integration of advanced manufacturing. His research team is currently focusing on the integration of artificial intelligence with additive manufacturing in both material design and process control.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China;
Dr. Wei Yu is a professor at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, P. R. China. He is the vice director of the Chinese Society of Rheology. His research focuses on the structures, dynamics, and rheology of complex fluids, including polymers, gels, emulsions, and suspensions. He also works on the physics and processing of polymeric materials.

Tsinghua University, Beijing, China;
Dr. Yen Wei is Chair Professor of Chemistry at Tsinghua University. He received his undergraduate diploma and MS from Peking University., PhD from City University. of New York, and postdoc at MIT. He became Full Prof. in 1995 and Herman B. Wagner Prof. of Chemistry in 2004 at Drexel University. He joined Tsinghua full-time in 2009 as a national highest level talent. His research focuses on polymers and nanomaterials for biomedicine, energy, water-treatment, intelligent device and 3D-printing technologies. He has co-authored 1444 articles with 86,850 SCI citations. He was listed as a highest cited scientist every year from 2014 to 2025.

Donghua University, Shanghai, China;
Dr. Zhengwei You is a Deputy Director of the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Fiber Materials and the Head of the Department of Composite Materials at Donghua University. He received his degrees of B.S. (2000) from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Ph.D. (2007) from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, CAS. From 2007 to 2012, he conducted his postdoctoral research on biomaterials at Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Pittsburgh. Prior to joining Donghua University in 2013, he was an innovation manager in Bayer MaterialScience. His current research involves smart polymers, elastomers, 3D printing, biomaterials, and elastic electronics. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers (55 papers with IF≥10) as the corresponding author in the journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature Communication (4), Science Advances (2), Advanced Materials (13), PNAS, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Account Chemical Research, and been granted more than 60 patents, and contributed 2 book chapters. He won First Prize of Natural Science Award of China National Textile and Apparel Council (Ranking 1/6) and First Prize of Science and Technology Award of Chinese Materials Research Society (Basic Research Category, Ranking 1/7) at 2025, Gold Medal of the 12th Macau International Innovation and Invention Exhibition (Ranking 1/3) at 2024, Shanghai Top Ten Youth Science and Technology Outstanding Contribution Award at 2023, and was selected in the 2022 Shanghai Leading Talent Program. He currently serves as the director of Research Base of Textile Materials for Flexible Electronics and Biomedical Applications, China Textile Engineering Society, the vice chairman of Biomaterials Advanced Manufacturing Branch of Chinese Society of Biomaterials, associate editor of the journal Smart Materials in Medicine (CiteScore: 14.8), editorial board member of the journal Bioactive Materials (IF: 20.3) and Chinese Journal of Polymer Sciences (IF: 4.1), youth editorial committee member of the journals Materials China and Advanced Fiber Materials (IF: 21.3).