Released: 10-Nov-2015 11:05 AM EST
2015 Dreyfus Prize Chemist Realizes Vast Commercial Applications from His Polymerization Innovation
 Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation

/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- When Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, J.C. Warner University Professor of Natural Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, was awarded the 2015 Dreyfus Prize in the Chemical Sciences, topping the selection criteria was his remarkable 1995 development of atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). ATRP is a type of "living" polymerization that slows or inserts pauses in the rapid chain reactions in which the polymer is synthesized, allowing for controlled manipulation and creation of structures and properties. Offering new and better materials for industry and consumer products, ATRP has been cited as the most important advance in polymer synthesis in half a century.