Cole Sorensen named the Dean's Distinguished Dissertation Awardee for all of physical sciences, mathematics, and engineering at UNC
April 19, 2024 | UNC-Chapel Hill Chemistry Communication
Congratulations to Cole Sorensen, 5th year student of the Leibfarth Lab, for being recognized as the Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Awardee for all of physical sciences, mathematics, and engineering! Sorensen’s dissertation is entitled “Stereoselective Cationic Polymerization: Method Development and Computationally Guided Mechanistic Studies” and centers around the synthesis of stereoregular polymers through ionic mechanisms using asymmetric ion-pairing (AIP) catalysis, particularly stereoselective cationic polymerization, to present a combined experimental and computational study into relevant factors that determine tacticity and helicity control.
“Over the last one-hundred years synthetic plastics have become critical to nearly every application owing to the vast properties they can access. One chemical parameter that has an acute effect on a plastics’ properties is stereochemistry, which describes its relative orientation in space; however, it is rarely considered. I have developed a framework for controlling a plastics stereochemistry for the synthesis materials for OLED applications, introduced data science strategies for the development of next-generation degradable plastics, and uncovered new physics phenomena for emerging applications in high efficiency alternatives to traditional electronics,” says Sorensen.
We are excited to watch where Cole’s research leads and can’t wait to see where his explorations take him next.
To see more of the Dissertation Awardees from 2024, along with other notable UNC graduate student awards for this year, please visit the Graduate Student Website below.