Dr. Ana Belén Sánchez Sánchez Extraordinary Doctoral Award 2017 (Polymers and Soft Matter group)

The postgraduate commission of the University of The Basque Country (UPV/EHU) has awarded Dr. Ana Belén Sánchez Sánchez the Extraordinary Doctoral Award for her thesis “Assembly&disassembly of bioinspired single-chain polymer nanoparticles“, presented in 2014 under the supervision of Professor J. Pomposo from the “Polymers and Soft Matter” group of Centro de Física de Materiales (CFM).

This is the maximum recognition given by the UPV/EHU to a thesis. From the 102 theses defended in the area of science in the considered year, 11 have been distinguished with this prize. The commission evaluates the international character as well as the quality of the work, attending to the publications and the impact of the research performed.

Dr. Sánchez´s work focused on the synthesis of chain polymer nanoparticles (SCPN) of defined size and shape. She studied the functionalization of such SCPNs to further evaluate their properties and applications. During her PhD she joined the Newcastle University for a stay of three months. This collaboration allowed her to get the International PhD.

In Dr. Sánchez´s opinion, the following publications best illustrate her thesis work:

pH-responsive single-chain polymer nanoparticles utilising dynamic covalent enaminebonds.

A. Sanchez-Sanchez, D. A. Fulton, and J. A. Pomposo

Chemical Communications. 2014, 50, 1871

“Michael” Nanocarriers Mimicking Transient-Binding Disordered Proteins.

Sanchez-Sanchez, S. Akbari, A. Etxeberria, A. Arbe, U. Gasser, A.J. Moreno, J. Colmenero and J. A. Pomposo

ACS Macro Letters. 2013, 2, 491

Ever since she finished her PhD she has continued with her research career with contracts with Euskampus foundation, UPV/EHU and POLYMAT. At present, she is working as a postdoc in France with a grant from the Basque Government.