Prof. Rowan was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and received his Ph.D. in Chemistry (1995) from the University of Glasgow. He undertook postdoctoral studies at the University of Cambridge and UCLA. From 1999 until 2016 he was a Professor at Case Western Reserve University. In 2016, he joined the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Chicago. He has a staff appointment at Argonne National Laboratory and is the Editor-in-Chief of ACS Macro Letters.

2023 ACS Fall POLY: CME NASA Symposium Abstract

Dynamic Networks as a Route to Access Pluripotent Materials

The concept of a pluripotent material is best explained by analogy to stem cells, which are pluripotent as they can give rise to different cell types. Thus, a “stem plastic” has the capability of being converted into different classes of plastic material. Given weight limitations when traveling in space the concept of pluripotent plastics that can be converted into very different materials depending on need, is an attractive one. The question, therefore, is “how can we design pluripotent materials? We have been investigating dynamic covalent networks combined with tempering or training procedures as one route to such materials.

2022 CME NASA Symposium

Towards Pluripotent Materials

The concept of a pluripotent material is best explained by analogy to stem cells, which are pluripotent as they can give rise to different cell types. Thus, “stem plastic” has the capability of being converted into different classes of plastic material. Given weight limitations when traveling in space the concept of pluripotent plastics that can be converted into very different materials depending on need, is an attractive one. The question, therefore, is “how can we design pluripotent materials?”