Distinguished Professor
Christopher Barner-Kowollik
Academic Division,
Office of the SDVC
Biography
Distinguished Professor Christopher Barner-Kowollik is a leading researcher in the field of macromolecular photochemistry, exploring with his team of over 20 PhD students and post-doctoral research fellows how light can be finely gated to generate advanced soft matter materials, including via light-driven 3D printing methodologies. He has pioneered a wide array of precision photochemical transformations using multiple colours of light and is a pioneer in understanding photochemical reactivity via so-called ‘action plots’. He heads a research team at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in addition to his role as Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor and Vice-President (Research) at QUT.A PhD graduate in chemistry from Göttingen University, Germany, Christopher joined the University of New South Wales in early 2000 rising to lead the Centre for Advanced Macromolecular Design in 2006 as one of its directors. He returned to Germany to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in 2008, where he established and led a German Research Council funded Centre of Excellence in soft matter synthesis and served as the Head of School of the School of Chemical Technology and Polymer Chemistry at the KIT. Following a period as an adjunct professor and collaborator with QUT, he moved to QUT in early 2017 and established QUT’s Soft Matter Materials Laboratory, now one of the world’s premier photochemical macromolecular laboratories.
Over this 24-year career to date, he has attracted over $50M in funding including from the German Research Council, the Helmholtz Association, the Australian Research Council and the private sector. He has developed and supported highly collaborative large teams, often across continents. He has authored over 780 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals, which have been cited over 46,000 times.
He has been awarded a wide array of national and international awards, including from the German Helmholtz Association, the UK Macro Group, the Belgian Polymer Group, the European Polymer Federation, the Royal Australian Chemical Society, the Royal Society of New South Wales and the Australian Academy of Science. In 2023 he received the Centenary Prize of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He is a fellow of several learned societies, including the Australian Academy of Science.
Personal details
Positions
- Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research)
Academic Division,
Office of the SDVC - Professor in Materials Science and Engineering
Faculty of Science,
School of Chemistry & Physics
Keywords
Macromolecular Chemistry, Light Induced Chemistry, Reversible Deactivation Radical Polymerization (RDRP), Macromolecular Analysis, High Resolution Mass Spectrometry, Macromolecular Surface Chemistry, Macromolecular Kinetics and Mechanism, Advanced Soft Matter Materials
Research field
Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry, Nanotechnology, Organic Chemistry
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008
Qualifications
- PhD in Chemistry (Gottingen University)
Professional memberships and associations
Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA), Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), German Chemical Society (GDCh), American Chemical Society (ACS), Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (FRACI), Fellow of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences (FQA)
Publications
- Rodrigues, L., Micallef, A., Pfrunder, M., Truong, V., McMurtrie, J., Dargaville, T., Goldmann, A., Feist, F. & Barner-Kowollik, C. (2021). A Self-Catalyzed Visible Light Driven Thiol Ligation. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 143(19), 7292–7297. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/211328
- Galant, O., Donmez, H., Barner-Kowollik, C. & Diesendruck, C. (2021). Flow Photochemistry for Single-Chain Polymer Nanoparticle Synthesis. Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, 60(4). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/207499
- Pelloth, J., Tran, P., Walther, A., Goldmann, A., Frisch, H., Truong, V. & Barner-Kowollik, C. (2021). Wavelength-Selective Softening of Hydrogel Networks. Advanced Materials, 33(39). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/212790
- Lückerath, T., Koynov, K., Loescher, S., Whitfield, C., Nuhn, L., Walther, A., Barner-Kowollik, C., Ng, D. & Weil, T. (2020). DNA–Polymer Nanostructures by RAFT Polymerization and Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly. Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, 59(36), 15474–15479. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/207540
- Kalayci, K., Frisch, H., Truong, V. & Barner-Kowollik, C. (2020). Green light triggered [2+2] cycloaddition of halochromic styrylquinoxaline-controlling photoreactivity by pH. Nature Communications, 11(1). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/203578
- Beloqui, A., Mane, S., Langer, M., Glassner, M., Bauer, D., Fruk, L., Barner-Kowollik, C. & Delaittre, G. (2020). Hetero-Diels–Alder Cycloaddition with RAFT Polymers as Bioconjugation Platform. Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, 59(45), 19951–19955. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/207539
- Gräfe, D., Walden, S., Blinco, J., Wegener, M., Blasco, E. & Barner-Kowollik, C. (2020). It's in the fine print: Erasable three-dimensional laser-printed micro- and nanostructures. Angewandte Chemie (International Edition), 59(16), 6330–6340.
- Feist, F., Rodrigues, L., Walden, S., Krappitz, T., Dargaville, T., Weil, T., Goldmann, A., Blinco, J. & Barner-Kowollik, C. (2020). Light-induced ligation of o-quinodimethanes with gated fluorescence self-reporting. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 142(17), 7744–7748. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/201893
- Michalek, L., Krappitz, T., Mundsinger, K., Walden, S., Barner, L. & Barner-Kowollik, C. (2020). Mapping Photochemical Reactivity Profiles on Surfaces. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 142(52). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/207494
- Houck, H., Müller, P., Wegener, M., Barner-Kowollik, C., Du Prez, F. & Blasco, E. (2020). Shining light on poly(ethylene glycol): From polymer modification to 3D laser printing of water erasable microstructures. Advanced Materials, 32(34). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/203332
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Christopher, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Awards
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2020
- Details
- United Kingdom Macro Group Medal
- Type
- Membership of Review Panels on Prestigious Grant Applications
- Reference year
- 2020
- Details
- Member of the ARC Australian Laureate Fellowship Selection Advisory Committee
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2019
- Details
- Prime Minister's Prize for Science Finalist
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2019
- Details
- QUT Vice-Chancellor's Excellence Award for Leadership Excellence
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2019
- Details
- Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science
- Type
- Recipient of an Australia Council Grant or Australia Council Fellowship
- Reference year
- 2017
- Details
- Australian Laureate Fellowship
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2016
- Details
- International Biannual Belgian Polymer Group (BPG) Award, for outstanding contributions to polymer science and numerous interactions with Belgian polymer groups. Featured in Angewandte Chemie Intl. Ed. 2012, 51, 1-2.
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2016
- Details
- Erwin Schrödinger Award of the Helmholtz Association in recognition of the body of work on 3D laser printing of functionalized microstructures
- Type
- Editorial Role for an Academic Journal
- Reference year
- 2013
- Details
- Editor-in-Chief of Polymer Chemistry (Royal Society of Chemistry)
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2011
- Details
- Australian Professorial Fellowship, Australian Research Council (ARC)
Selected research projects
- Title
- A New Generation of Photoresists for 3D Laser Lithography
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- DP180100316
- Start year
- 2018
- Keywords
- Title
- High Performance Inks for Solution Based Organic Light Emitting Diodes Manufacturing
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- LP170100387
- Start year
- 2018
- Keywords
- Title
- Light-Induced chemical modularity: a new frontier in macromolecular design
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- FL170100014
- Start year
- 2018
- Keywords
- Title
- Nanoparticle driven templating of microspheres as chromatographic materials
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- LP160101362
- Start year
- 2017
- Keywords
Projects listed above are funded by Australian Competitive Grants. Projects funded from other sources are not listed due to confidentiality agreements.
Supervision
Supervision topics
- Advanced polymer inks for 3D printing - defining the future of 3D additive manufacturing
- Macromolecular barcoding for tracing plastic materials for the circular economy: a game changer for recycling
- Towards Synthetic protein-structures based on precision macromolecules: can we beat nature in designing catalysts?
- Polymer particles as precision sensors for molecules
- Using light for 3D patterning of surfaces: the visible light challenge