About the Speaker:

Bio:

Justin G. Kennemur was born in Sumter, SC but grew up in Yorktown, VA. In 1997, he attended Radford University and completed a B.S. in Chemistry and Minor in Mathematics in 2002 under the guidance of Professors Cindy Burkhardt and Francis Webster. After working at Polymer Solutions Incorporated (PSI) in Blacksburg, VA as an Analytical Polymer Chemist for three years, he entered the Ph.D. program of the Department of Chemistry at North Carolina State University in 2005. Under the advisement of Professor Bruce M. Novak, he completed his dissertation in 2010 entitled “Synthesis and Investigation of Chiral Polycarbodiimides with Reversible Dynamic Properties.“ He began a post-doctoral appointment in January 2011 at the University of Minnesota where he worked under the co-advisement of Professors Marc A. Hillmyer and Frank S. Bates. He began his Assistant Professorship in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida State University in August of 2014 and was promoted to Associate Professor in Fall 2020.

​Justin’s interest in polymers began as an undergraduate when he took an elective laboratory course in polymer chemistry. His passion in this field continued on to industry, graduate school, and post-doctoral work where he acquired education in the areas of analytical polymer chemistry, transition metal-mediated polymerizations of helical polymers, and the synthesis, dynamics, and thermodynamics of block polymer systems, respectively. He hopes to synergize these various areas of knowledge into new frontier materials based on the hierarchical and autonomous self-assembly capabilities of macromolecular systems.

​Aside from research, Justin is engaged in the education and recruitment of future chemists. He is a member of the American Chemical Society along with elected Secretary of the Division of Polymer Chemistry (POLY) in 2023. He is also a member of the Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) and the American Physical Society (APS) DPOLY.

To learn more about their research, follow this link.