Herzlich Willkommen im Arbeitskreis von Prof. Katharina Landfester

Following the IUPAC-PSK50 conference in Busan, Katharina Landfester and PhD students Laurens Cayé and Huan Dang visited the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) in South Korea. They were hosted by Seunghyeon Kim, a former postdoc in the Landfester group who is now a professor at DGIST. During the visit, Katharina Landfester spoke at a Friday afternoon symposium featuring four female speakers, including Friederike Schmid from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. We thank Seunghyeon Kim for the excellent hospitality. mehr

From September 28 to October 1, 2026, Katharina Landfester attended the International Conference on Next Horizons in Polymers (IUPAC-PSK50) at BEXCO in Busan, South Korea, held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Polymer Society of Korea. She gave a keynote lecture titled “Adaptive Nanomedicine: Designing Smart Therapeutic Systems” in the session on Colloids, Interfaces, and Molecular Assemblies for Functional Soft Materials. PhD students Huan Dang and Laurens Cayé also presented their research, Huan in a talk and Laurens with a poster. Along with Tanja Weil and Hans-Jürgen Butt, three MPIP directors attended the conference, which featured excellent talks across the field of polymer science. mehr

This week, our institute traded pipettes for pruning shears: we harvested our very own grapes from the 10 vines growing right here at the MPIP, and this year they're destined to become Riesling! A huge thank you to Yannick, who organized everything from start to finish, and to everyone who joined in. The group was wonderfully active and enthusiastic, and it was a joy to see so many colleagues come together outside the lab for something a little different. Early signs are very promising, so we're expecting a truly excellent MPIP vintage this year. We'll keep you posted once it's in the bottle! Thank you to all the helpers. Cheers to good science, great teamwork, and a fine glass of Riesling! mehr

Eine Veranstaltung explizit für Schulen fand zum 2. Mal statt und das MPIP war mit einem Rollenspiel wieder dabei: Die Nanokapsel auf ihrer langen Reise durch den Körper. Was genau passiert und was „Drug Targeting“ bedeutet, wird in einfachen Worten und spielerisch den Schulkindern erklärt.
Dieses Jahr waren die zwei dritten und vierten Klassen voller Eifer dabei. Vielen Dank an Christine Rosenauer und Ulrike Schneider für die Moderation und an Pauline Kessler und Maurice Weber für die tolle Unterstützung. mehr

Dieses Jahr fand der Kinderuni- und Familientag im Lennebergwald statt. Das Motto: „Netze“. Christine Rosenauer und Elissa Gishieva erklärten an unserem Stand das Geheimnis hinter Elastizität und warum ein Gummiball mit weniger vernetzten Elastomeren höher springen kann als ein Schaumstoffball, der stärker vernetzt ist.
Zahlreiche Institutionen zeigten Experimente aus unterschiedlichen naturwissenschaftlichen Disziplinen. Für das MPI-P und das Kunststoffpfad-Team war der Tag erneut ein wichtiges Puzzleteil, um Kindern Wissenschaft auf einfache Art und Weise zu erklären. mehr

We are pleased to share that our PhD student Ina-Charlotte Tutzschky recently presented her research on peptide-based coacervates and liquid–liquid phase separation at two international scientific events.

In Lund, Sweden, Ina participated in the LINXS–SoftComp on Phase Separation, Condensation and Self-Association in 2 and 3 Dimensions...subsequently she presented the same work at the 21st International Microscopy Congress in Liverpool, UK. mehr

This week, the Münchfeld School’s childcare programme spent one morning on the Path. The children had great fun making a polymer chain, creating an amorphous structure, examining artificial turf, and determining density using the ‘float and sink’ method as part of the recycling process. Hands-on science! mehr

One of our PhD students, Gabrielle Anjani Ong, presented a talk titled "Disorder in Polymersomes Membrane Enhances Diffusion of Cargo Molecules", showcasing how membrane disorder in polymersomes can be leveraged to improve permeability, with exciting implications for drug delivery and nanocarrier design.

It's always a pleasure to see our students engage with the community and represent the group on an international stage. Great questions and discussions followed. Congratulations on a fantastic presentation, and thank you to the organizers of PMM for once again bringing together such a vibrant macromolecular science community in Prague!  mehr