Fernando Vidal

Fernando Vidal studied chemistry at the University of Almería (B.S. 2011) and organometallic chemistry at the University of Alcalá (M.S. 2012). He then obtained a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue his PhD studies in inorganic and polymer chemistry at Colorado State University in the group of Prof. Eugene Y.-X. Chen, where he graduated in 2017. After a 3 year stint as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Frieder Jäkle at Rutgers University-Newark, he then moved to the University of Oxford in 2020 as a Newton International Fellow (Royal Society) in the group of Prof. Charlotte Williams. In 2021, he was awarded an Individual Marie Sklodowska Curie fellowship to continue his research at Oxford.

During his research career, Fernando has gained ample experience in the synthesis of functional polymers for advanced materials applications, such as self-healing and catalysis. He has also been the laboratory manager of the Poly-RUN, a state-of-the-art facility at Rutgers University for the thermal and mechanical characterization of soft materials. His current research interests encompass new strategies to develop more sust​ainable plastics, by both desiging functional monomers and polymers, exploiting efficient polymerization catalysis and renewable resources, and understanding their end-of-life fate. He is also an active collaborator in the “Future of Plastics Programme” at the Oxford Martin School, a joint adventure between chemists, economists and lawyers aiming to provide solutions to the plastic problem.

After his membership in the New York chapter of ECUSA, Fernando decided to join SRUK/CERU soon after his arrival to Oxford. He became member of the working group of the SRUK/CERU-Oxford chapter in december of 2021.