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Maria Santore, professor of polymer science and engineering at UMass Amherst, and Markus Retsch, University of Bayreuth, Germany, recently convened a collaborative symposium and workshop on Advanced and Living Materials on the UMass Amherst campus.

A delegation of 16 faculty and scientists from the University of Bayreuth joined with UMass faculty members and students Dec. 9-10 for a collaborative event hosted by the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering and sponsored by the polymer department, the Office of Global Affairs, the UMass Amherst Institute for Hierarchical Manufacturing, and the Center for University of Massachusetts-Industry Research on Polymers (CUMIRP).

The symposium was attended by over 100 participants, who hailed from six departments across the College of Natural Sciences and the College of Engineering, and showcased the cutting-edge soft materials research being conducted at the two institutions. Discussions amplified common interests and complimentary approaches, capabilities and instrumentation.

Special sections of the program were dedicated to important emergent areas, such the use of machine learning to guide the creation of new polymeric materials and, separately, the nascent field of living materials, in which bacteria are employed for targeted applications that require their genetic manipulation and their integration into polymeric and particulate matrices such as fibers, concretes and structured composites.

The program included a poster session featuring 35 student project and faculty group posters, a review of complimentary facilities and round table workshop discussions by students and faculty addressing collaborations, future joint symposia and research-driven student and faculty residencies across institutions.

“It was wonderful to have such engagement across the colleges and between UMass Amherst and the University of Bayreuth,” says Santore. “From wonderful overviews provided by Sanjay Raman, dean of the College of Engineering, and Al Crosby, department head of polymer science, to presentations on the latest science by students and faculty, it was a great way to kickstart new multi-university, international collaborations."