Université de Bordeaux

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 is currently Director of the Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques (LCPO-CNRS) and is leading the group “Polymers Self-Assembly and Life Sciences”. His research interests include the design of bio-inspired polymers for biomaterials and pharmaceutical develoment, especially based on polypeptide, proteins and polysaccharide-based block copolymers self-assembly, the design of polymersomes for drug-delivery and theranostic, as well as biomimetic approaches toward design of synthetic viruses and artificial cells. He published over 230 publications in international journal, 6 book chapters and 12 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 bronze medal (2004), Institut Universitaire de France Junior Chair (IUF 2007), Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry RSC (2017), French Academy of Science Chemistry Seqens Award (2019), Member of the Academia Europaea (2020), XingDa Lectureship Award from Peking University (2021). He currently holds 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) and Biomaterials Science (RSC).  

Dr. Paul-André Genest is an Assistant Director and Publisher at the American Chemical Society where he is responsible for the management of roughly half of the ACS journals portfolio and Global Editorial Strategy team. Since 2016, he is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University where he co-teaches a yearly course on scholarly communication (BIOS 292: Preparation and Practice: Scientific Communication & Media). Previously, he worked as a Publisher and Senior Editor at Wiley and as an Associate Publisher and Scientific Editor at Elsevier. Dr. Genest has a BSc (Biology) degree and a MSc (Microbiology-Immunology) degree from the Université Laval in Québec City, Canada, and a PhD (Molecular Parasitology) from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He held two postdoc research positions at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, The Netherlands before transitioning to the scholarly publishing industry.

Monica joined the ACSI sales team based in Oxford in July 2014. Alongside her Regional Sales Manager reponsibilities in the EMEA region, Monica represents the ACS internationally, fostering the relationship between the ACS and their end-users, authors, customers and stakeholders. She is strongly committed to bringing the ACS closer to the scientific community outside the USA and she fully engages at every opportunity in outreach events such as ACS on Campus.

Dr. Míriam Plana joined Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) in 2007. Her main focus at CAS is helping scientists solve their scientific information challenges and reach their goals through CAS Solutions. Míriam received her Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Barcelona, where she also completed her undergraduate studies. During her Ph.D. studies she moved to University of Oxford (UK), Technische Universität Berlin (Germany) and BAYER AG (Germany) to complete her research and learn new ways and techniques to do research. Before working at CAS, Míriam worked as a Technical Chemical Engineer, Head of X-Rays Diffraction and Researcher in R&D in different fields such as Cosmetic, Paper, Dyes and Enamels. She speaks English, German, Spanish, Catalan and some French.

Becky Monfort is the Program Manager for ACS on Campus, the American Chemical Society’s flagship outreach program. She oversees events and programs at institutions around the world, bringing leaders in chemistry, publishing, research, science communication, and career development to thousands of students and early career researchers. Prior to joining the ACS on Campus team, Becky managed the ACS international student chapter program, coordinated ACS outreach efforts to international students and faculty in the chemical sciences, and facilitated student programming at ACS and other scientific meetings. Becky joined ACS in July 2017 from Organic Letters, an ACS Publication, at the University of Pennsylvania, and she has worked in global program strategy and development. Becky holds a BA in French and Comparative Literature from Bryn Mawr College.