ACS On Campus, Tunisia “Off Campus” Webinar

Sébastien Lecommandoux received his Ph.D. (1996) in Physical Chemistry from the University of Bordeaux. After a postdoctoral experience at the University of Illinois (UIUC, USA) in the group of Prof. Samuel I. Stupp, he started his academic career at the Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques as Associate Professor in 1998 and was promoted to Full Professor at Bordeaux INP in 2005. He was Director of the Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques (LCPO-CNRS) from 2016 to 2025 and is currently leading the group “Polymers Self-Assembly and Life Sciences”. His research focuses on the rational design of bio-inspired polymer systems for advanced biomaterials and pharmaceutical applications, leveraging the self-assembly of polypeptide-based block copolymers to engineer functional polymersomes for targeted drug delivery. Beyond delivery platforms, his work develops biomimetic strategies to construct synthetic viruses and artificial cells, aiming to bridge molecular engineering with complex biological functionality for next-generation biomedical technologies. He published over 250 publications in international journal, 6 book chapters and 15 patents (3 being licenced, 1 start-up created Doxanano). He is also co-director of the joint laboratory LCPO-L’OREAL. Sébastien Lecommandoux is recipient of the CNRS Silver Medal (2025) after getting the CNRS Bronze Medal (2004), Institut Universitaire de France Senior Chair (IUF 2025, Junior in 2007), Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry RSC (2017), Elected member and Fellow of the European Academy of Science (EurASc 2026), Elected member of the Academia Europaea (2020), French Academy of Science Chemistry Seqens Award (2019), XingDa Lectureship Award from Peking University (2021). He also recently holded the Chaire annuelle Innovation technologique Liliane Bettencourt, Collège de France (2024-2025). He is Editor-in-Chief of Biomacromolecules (ACS) since 2020 after serving as Associate Editor since 2013. He is also in the Editorial Advisory Board of several international journals, including Bioconjugate Chemistry (ACS), Polymer Chemistry (RSC), Biomaterials Science (RSC) and RSC Applied Polymers.  

Sophie Guillaume graduated from Syracuse University, New York, USA where she studied the organometallic chemistry of borane and carborane rare earth complexes. After a post doc at the CEA (Atomic Energy Commission) in Saclay, France, she then joined the CNRS in 1994. She first developed the organometallic chemistry of uranium and rare earth complexes before changing her major for the field of polymer chemistry. In 2000, she joined the Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques, the LCPO in Bordeaux, France. She then investigated the ring-opening polymerization of cyclic esters and carbonates using in particular metal-based catalysts.   Almost twenty years ago, she moved to the Institute of Chemical Sciences at the University of Rennes-France. She is a CNRS Research Director, currently Scientific Director at the Chemistry Institute of CNRS. Her current research, developed in collaboration with industrial partners (TotalEnergies, Bostik, Arkema) and within academic projects, involves green and bio-based approaches towards the preparation of original functional and reactive polymers, including polyesters, polycarbonates, polyurethanes, and polyolefins for the development of new polymer materials, emphasizing on polymerization catalysis, macromolecular engineering and structure-properties relationships and more recently focusing efforts on circular polymers. She has coauthored +150 peer reviewed papers published in international journals, and several proceedings, media articles, book chapters, book, along with +30 patents. She has been distinguished in particular by the CNRS Outstanding Scientific Excellence honor since more than 15 years. She has been a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of ACS Applied Polymer Materials and Macromolecules, and she is currently Associate Editor of ACS Applied Polymer Materials, Editorial Advisory Board member of Polymer Chemistry, RSC, and Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Wiley. She has been President of the French Polymer Group and of the Polymer Division of the French Chemical Society from 2018-2021, and she then got appointed National Representative at the IUPAC Polymer division, as well as deputy director of the Institute of Chemical Sciences at the University of Rennes prior to taking the position at CNRS Chemistry.