Prof. Haritz Sardon

Dr. Haritz Sardon Muguruza earned his BS in Chemistry and his MS in Applied Chemistry and Polymeric Materialsfrom the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU). He got his PhD also from the UPV-EHU with the especial mention of "Doctor Europeus". During the mentioned PhD, he spent 6 months at Laboratoire de Chimie et Procédés de Polymérisation (LCPP), CNRS, Villeurbanne, France under the supervision of Dr. Elodie Bourgeat-Lami and Dr. Muriel Lansalot. He held a postdoctoral researcher position at IBM-Almaden Research Center (SanJose, California) in 2012 to work with Dr. James L. Hedrick. There, he developed sustainable approaches for the synthesis of polyurethanes using isocyanate and metal-free methods as part of IBM´s smart planet initiative. The goal was to synthesize "smart" polymers that execute useful biological functions on the nanoscale, e.g. selectivity delivering drugs to tumors, killing pathogens without harming human cells, etc using organocatalysis. In 2014, as part of his postdoctoral training, he spent 5 months in the group of Vygodskii (INEOS, Russia), working on the synthesis of ionic cationic diols to enhance the CO2 separation in polyurethane membranes.Nowadays, he is coordinating a Marie Skłodowska-Curie European Joint Doctorate Training Network (ITN-EJD) in sustainable polymerization processes (SUSPOL). And supervising 3 PhD students inside this european network. In 2011, he was awarded with a Post-doctoral grant from the Basque Government. In 2014 he was awarded with a “Juan de la Cierva” award. Also in 2014, he was awarded with Iberdrola Research Project for young researchers in energy and environment.   In 2016 he took an Ikerbasque Research Fellow position between the BERC-POLYMAT and the University of Basque Country to start his independent research lines. His overall research aims to prepare new functional polymeric materials using sustainable polymerization processes for advanced engineering and biomedical applications. Specially, using “green” polymerization processes such as monomers from polymer recycling, reagents from renewable sources or the use of less hazardous organocatalysts to prepare high added value polymers. Our overall research aims to prepare new functional polymeric materials using sustainable polymerization processes for advanced engineering and biomedical applications. Specially, our investigations involve the synthesis of new polymers using “green” polymerization processes such as monomers from polymer recycling, reagents from renewable sources or the use of less hazardous organocatalysts to prepare not only biodegradable polymeric materials for nanomedicine but also high added value polymers. Our group combines expertise in polymer chemistry, organic synthesis, nanomedicine and material science.    Research lines:   1. Sustainable Polymerization: We work in the chemical recycling of commodity polymers such as polyesters, polycarbonates and/or polyurethanes to prepare new monomers for highly added value applications. We are also interested in the utilization of less hazardous organocatalysts to prepare new polymers.    2. Polymers for nanomedicine: the good control of the polymerization processes and the utilization of benign polymerization conditions allow us to synthesize functional polymers that can be employed in biomedical applications. We are currently developing polymer for antimicrobial drug and gene delivery or magnetic resonance imaging applications. 

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