Virgil Percec

Virgil Percec is the P. Roy Vagelos Chair and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. His contributions to Chemistry have advanced understanding of the principles that govern the synthesis and self-assembly of sophisticated macromolecular building blocks into ordered supramolecular structures.

Specifically, he provided new tools to control polymer shape and degree of polymerization (Nature 1998) and designed unique supramolecular helical dendrimers that self-assemble into complex shapes (Nature 2002). His elegant works (Nature 2004; Science 2010) combine very original ideas to provide convincing demonstrations of rationally designed functional materials (JACSM 2013; PNAS 2014), with potential for widespread utility in engineering and biomedical applications.