BPI Seminar by Dr. Eleftheria Roumeli

Location: CHBE #202, 2360 East Mall Vancouver BC V6T 1Z4

Addressing the urgent environmental challenges arising from non-degradable plastics is imperative. Recent studies propose a paradigm shift towards harnessing whole biological matter, or biomatter, as a foundational resource for sustainable materials. The rich macromolecular composition, diverse bonding motifs, and hierarchical arrangement of components within biomatter serve as key factors in tailoring the performance of biomatter-based materials.

In this presentation, we will discuss our recent work on transforming photosynthetic biomatter into bioplastics which have mechanical properties and processability akin to commodity plastics. Changes in micromorphology, molecular conformation, and bonding patterns within the biomatter are identified as controlling factors for the mechanical properties of the resultant bioplastics. Additionally, composite approaches further aid in modulating these mechanical properties. The holistic evaluation of our bioplastics includes also end-of-life considerations, encompassing recycling and biodegradation pathways. 

 

Eleftheria Roumeli is an Assistant Professor in the Materials Science & Engineering department of the University of Washington. With a focus on developing and understanding sustainable materials, her research group explores new families of bioplastics, biocomposites, and environmentally friendly construction materials derived from biological building blocks, and specifically from biopolymers. The group investigates the relationships between structure, processing, mechanical properties and life cycle impacts in these novel classes of sustainable materials. Prior to joining UW, Eleftheria completed her postdoctoral training at the California Institute of Technology (2017-2020) and ETH Zurich (2015-2017) – both in Departments of Mechanical Engineering. She earned her B.S. (2009) and Ph.D. in Physics (2014) from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, where her research focused on understanding the structure-property relationships in synthetic polymer nanocomposite materials.

Eleftheria received the 2024 ACS PMSE Early Investigator Award, was selected as Kavli Fellow for the 5th Fifth Korean-American Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium (2024), US National Academy of Science 2023 Young Observer for the 52nd IUPAC General Assembly, and was also voted UW MSE Faculty of the year for 2022 & 2023.