Professor Julius Vancso has been appointed as Consulting Professor at Donghua University in Shanghai. His appointment ceremony at the Donghua University (DHU) was held at Songjiang Campus. Qing Fengling, Vice President of DHU, attended the ceremony presided over by Wu Peiyi, Dean of College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology.

He recently gave his inaugural lecture, entitled ‘Polymer-surface interactions from the molecular perspective by AFM force spectroscopy’. Read more >>

Julius Vancso is Professor and Chairholder of Materials Science and Technology of Polymers at the University of Twente (UT) in the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology since 1995, and Head of the Department of Chemical Technology at the same university.

He also holds an appointment as Visiting Principal Scientist at the Institute for Materials Research and Engineering of the Agency of Science and Technology, A*STAR, in Singapore.

He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) and External Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

He studied physics at the University of Sciences Eötvös Loránd in Budapest, Hungary (summa cum laude). His M. Sc. Thesis was devoted to quasi-one dimensional organic semiconductors. He received his Ph.D. from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and University of Sciences in Budapest, in 1982 in solid state physics (summa cum laude). In his Ph.D. Thesis he discussed the preparation, physical properties, charge and spin mobility in polyenes and polyenyl radicals, with particular emphasis on polyacetylene. He continued his education as postgraduate student in materials science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland (ETH-Zurich, 1983-1985). Subsequently, he was lecturer at the ETH-Zurich (1985-1988), (tenured) Associate Professor of the University of Toronto in Canada (Chemistry and Materials Science, 1988-1995), Visiting Professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara in the USA (2001), Associate Dean of the Faculty of Chemical Technology in Twente (2001-2002) and Visiting Professor of the Technical University of Barcelona (2001-2002). He was Honorary Professor of the Budapest Technical University (Pro Renovanda Cultura Hungariae, in 2002), and Visiting Professor of ETH Zürich - Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich in 2012. He is the founding editor of European Polymer Journal's Macromolecular Nanotechnology section.

Professor Vancso's current scientific interests revolve around macromolecular nanotechnology and materials science of soft matter. Particular attention is given to surface engineering, surface-initiated polymerizations (polymer brushes), single molecule chemistry and physics, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), single emitter photonics, nanostructured materials, and materials chemistry of organometallic polymers. Biointerfaces, specifically synthetic polymers in contact with seawater, and biomaterials in tissue engineering receive increasing attention in his work. His research in macromolecular nanotechnology started with a research award of the Prime Minister of Ontario, Canada in 1989 allowing him to initiate a program in AFM of soft matter at the University of Toronto, focusing on nanoscale observations, studies of molecular properties, and molecular manipulation of polymeric materials. He has been currently awarded by an NWO-TOP grant (Netherlands Foundation for Scientific Research) in macromolecular nanotechnology of stimulus responsive polymers. These grants are "directed at research groups that excel in (bio)chemistry or chemical technology". The grants "offer these groups the opportunity and freedom strengthen or extend, challenging and innovative lines of research". He (co)authored 365 + papers, which scored a total of 8,200 citations and earned him an "h-factor" of 44 (December, 2012). With his coworkers he  coauthored five patents, and recently published a monograph on "Scanning Force Microscopy of Polymers" (Springer).

Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands made an inaugural visit to Singapore between 23 and 25 January 2013. She was accompanied by the Prince of Oranje Willem-Alexander, his wife Princess Máxima, Minister of Foreign Affairs Frans Timmermans, Minister for International Trade Lilianne Ploumen, and a high-level business delegation. The delegation visited Fusionworld in A*STAR’s Fusionopolis on January 25, where A*STAR showcased its latest inventions and programs, including Julius Vancso’s IMAS (Innovative Marine Antifouling Solutions for High Value Applications) program hosted by the Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences (ICES) of A*STAR. In the photograph Julius Vancso introduces the IMAS program to the delegation: from the right Mr. Lim Chuan Poh hosting the visit, Queen Beatrix, Princess Máxima, Prince Willem-Alexander, Professor Alex van Herk and Professor G. Julius Vancso.

On June 29, 2012 Mr. Xiaofeng Sui has defended his Ph.D. Thesis with a "cum laude" distinction, entitled ""Chameleon" Macromolecules: Synthesis, Structures and Applications of Stimulus Responsive Polymers". This work was supported by a TOP Program of the Netherlands Foundation for Chemical Research.

Professor Knoll received the degree “doctor honoris causa” on October 25, 2011 during the 50 years celebrations, the 50th Dies Natalis, of the University of Twente, in the presence of her Majesty Queen Beatrix. Prof. Knoll’s honorary promotor, Prof. Julius Vancso, commented the work of the honorary doctor as “one of the most inspiring, most influential, most original and most productive oeuvres of the last decades in biophysics, bionanotechnology, and molecular sciences”. read more

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