Prof. Dr. Katharina Landfester

Main research interests

Katharina Landfester’s broad research interests range from polymerization in miniemulsion, structure formation in nanoconfinements, characterization of physical properties in droplets, enzymatic reactions in heterophase, encapsulation of hydrophilic and hydrophobic components in nanocapsules, synthesis and characterization of functionalized nanoparticles/-capsules to uptake of nanoparticles in different cells and in vivo applications.

Short CV

Katharina Landfester studied chemistry at the Technical University of Darmstadt. For her diploma thesis, she was at the Ecole d’Application des Hauts Polymères in Strasbourg (Prof. M. Lambla). In 1995, she received her doctoral degree in physical chemistry from the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz after working with Prof. H.W. Spiess at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research on the synthesis and characterization of core-shell latexes by transmission electron microscopy and solid-state NMR. After spending another year as a group leader at the institute, she moved for a postdoctoral stay at Lehigh University (Prof. M. El-Aasser) where she first came in contact with the miniemulsion technique. She returned to Germany in 1998, joining the group of Prof. M. Antonietti at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Golm. There, she led the miniemulsion group working on new possibilities in the synthesis of complex nanoparticles. In 2002, she got her habilitation in physical chemistry at the University of Potsdam.

In 2003, she accepted a chair (C4) of Macromolecular Chemistry at the University of Ulm. There, she started her activities in the field of biomedical applications in cooperation with several medical groups working on the interaction of nanoparticles with different cell compartments, the labelling of cells and the delivery of substances to specific sides. Since 2008, she is director at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research.

In 1992 and 1994, she obtained DAAD stipends for her research activities in Strasbourg. For the research in the US, she got in 1996 a DFG stipend. In 1998, she received the Liebig stipend of the Fonds der chemischen Industrie (FCI). In 2001, she was awarded the Reimund Stadler price of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GdCh) and the prize of the Dr. Hermann Schnell Stiftung.  

From 2002 to 2007, she was a member of the young academy (Junge Akademie) of the Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften und Deutschen Naturforscher Leopoldina; in 2003/2004 she as the spokesperson of the young academy. Since 2010, she is a member of the Academy of Technical Science (Acatech).

She has published about 630 papers in international journals, some 40 reviews and holds 50 patents.

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