IRES Symposium
Join us for the IRES Dresden Symposium, where this year’s cohort of PhD students will present research conducted over their 10-week international experience in Germany. Each student will give a brief talk highlighting their project and findings.
2025 Symposium Schedule
The symposium will be held in person and broadcast via Zoom to accommodate remote attendees. Faculty advisors, research group members, local hosts, and collaborators are all encouraged to attend. The full schedule is provided below.
- Date: Friday, July 25, 2025
- 2:00 – 4:35 pm CEST (Germany)
- 8:00 – 10:35 am EST (North Carolina)
- Room Location: Leibniz Institute for Polymer Research, Conference Hall, H201
- Zoom: https://go.ncsu.edu/ires_symposium
| SESSION 1: SIMULATIONS | |
| 2:00 – 2:15 PM CEST 8:00 – 8:15 AM EST | MERVE FEDAI NC State / Leibniz IPF, Host: Arash Nikoubashman Molecular Insights into Self-Assembly and Structural Color in CNC-Inspired Liquid Crystalline Phases |
| 2:15 – 2:30 PM CEST 8:15 – 8:30 AM EST | NIKKI HAMMOND NC State / Leibniz IPF, Hosts: Jens-Uwe Sommer, Tyler Harmon Simulation/Theory of Nucleation Barriers for Phase Separation in Polymerizing Systems |
| SESSION 2: SYNTHETIC SOFT MATERIALS | |
| 2:30 – 2:45 PM CEST 8:30 – 8:45 AM EST | NICHOLAS FINAN Duke / Leibniz IPF, Host: Quinn Besford Developing Messenger Material Nanoparticles for Probing Physical Phenomena |
| 2:45 – 2:55 PM CEST 8:45 – 8:55 AM EST | Coffee Break |
| 2:55 – 3:10 PM CEST 8:55 – 9:10 AM EST | CLAIRE WANG UNC / Leibniz IPF, Host: Christian Roßner Polyoxazoline-Based Bottle-Brush Polymers for Functionalizing Gold Nanoparticles |
| 3:10 – 3:25 PM CEST 9:10 – 9:25 AM EST | AARON CROSS NC State / HZDR, Host: Denys Makarov Self-Aware and Self-Healable Magnetic Soft Robots |
| SESSION 3: BIOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS | |
| 3:25 – 3:40 PM CEST 9:25 – 9:40 AM EST | RICHARD GILMAN NC State / Leibniz IPF, Host: Jonas Schubert TBD |
| 3:40 – 3:50 PM CEST 9:40 – 9:50 AM EST | Coffee Break |
| 3:50 – 4:05 PM CEST 9:50 – 10:05 AM EST | S M ABU NASER SHOVON NC State / DKFZ, Hosts: Tian Qiu, Jiyuan Tian Soft Micro-Robot via Ultrasound Actuation |
| SESSION 4: BIOMATERIALS | |
| 4:05 – 4:20 PM CEST 10:05 – 10:20 AM EST | FONTAINE MCFEATERS NC State / Leibniz IPF, Hosts: Carsten Werner, Lars Renner Multifunctional Anchor Polymer Coatings for Next-Generation Antibacterial Surfaces |
| 4:20 – 4:35 PM CEST 10:20 – 10:35 AM EST | REID BARNETT NC State / PTS, Host: Andreas Geißler Biological Functionalization of Paper |
2024 Symposium Schedule
- Date: Friday, July 26, 2024
- 2:00 – 4:40 pm CEST (Germany)
- 8:00 – 10:40 am EST (North Carolina)
- Room Location: Barkhausen Bau I88
- Zoom: https://go.ncsu.edu/ires_symposium
| SESSION 1: SIMULATIONS | |
| 2:00 – 2:20 PM CEST 8:00 – 8:20 AM EST | MATT DORSEY NC State / Leibniz IPF, Hosts: Jens-Uwe Sommer, Ron Dockhorn Hysteresis of Stiff, Interlocking Polymer Rings |
| 2:20 – 2:40 PM CEST 8:20 – 8:40 AM EST | CHRISSY BAYARD NC State / TU Dresden, Hosts: Gianaurelio Cuniberti, Leonardo Medrano Sandonas Quantum Machine Learning for RNA Simulations |
| 2:40 – 2:50 PM CEST 8:40 – 8:50 AM EST | Coffee Break |
| SESSION 2: POLYMER CHEMISTRY | |
| 2:50 – 3:10 PM CEST 8:50 – 9:10 AM EST | MARIA FURUKAWA UNC / Leibniz IPF, Host: Petra Uhlmann Preparation of Biocompatible Polyamide Nanofilms with Multifunctional Polymer Brushes |
| 3:10 – 3:30 PM CEST 9:10 – 9:30 AM EST | ALEX FORET Duke / Leibniz IPF, Host: Christian Roßner Synthesis of Terpyridine-Containing Copolymers with Star Topology as Ligands for Gold Nanoparticles |
| 3:30 – 3:50 PM CEST 9:30 – 9:50 AM EST | TAYLOR ROBINSON UNC / Leibniz IPF, Host: Quinn Besford Developing Messenger Material Nanoparticles for Probing Physical Phenomena |
| 3:50 – 4:00 PM CEST 9:50 – 10:00 AM EST | Coffee Break |
| SESSION 3: APPLICATIONS | |
| 4:00 – 4:20 PM CEST 10:00 -10:20 AM EST | DARRYL TAYLOR Duke / Papiertechnische Stiftung, Host: Martin Zahel Acetosolv Nanocellulose |
| 4:20 – 4:40 PM CEST 10:20 – 10:40 AM EST | JIMMY NGUYEN NC State / TU Dresden, Hosts: Stefan Kaskel, Irena Senkovska Synthesis and Chemistry of 2D Metal-Organic Frameworks |
