Tanja Weil appointed as new director
Prof. Dr. Tanja Weil has been appointed as the new director of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) heading the department “Synthesis of Macromolecules”. She will take over the directorship at the MPI-P starting October 1, 2016.
The research of Tanja Weil centers around tailored nanomaterials for biomedical and materials science applications. She designs and synthesizes precision macromolecules and hybrid materials that can, for example, enhance the uptake of viruses into stem cells thus offering great opportunities to improve gene therapy. Moreover, such tailored macromolecules can detect cancer cells and induce light-controlled cell deaths.
With her new position, the winner of the Otto Hahn Medal enters a familiar territory: she had conducted her PhD thesis at the MPI-P, which she completed in 2002 at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Between 2005 and 2008, she worked as a project leader at the MPI-P exploring polymers for medical applications. After a very successful career in the pharmaceutical industry, Weil accepted a professorship at the prestigious National University of Singapore. In 2010, she took over the directorship of the Institute of Organic Chemistry III at Ulm University.
“With over 130 scientific publications and 200 patents, Tanja Weil is an acclaimed scientist who has received a prestigious Synergy Grant of the European Research Council for her outstanding scientific achievements. Thus, we are glad to have her joining our directorate as a full-time member from September onward”, says Prof. Dr. Mischa Bonn, director at the MPI-P. The new research department led by Weil focuses, among others, on the field of function-driven synthesis of macromolecules further expanding the interdisciplinary approach of the institute.
