Dr Claire Seitzinger

Claire is a postdoctoral research associate working in collaboration with Polestar on exploring varied PET sources for automotive applications. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Luther College in Decorah, IA, where her polymer journey began with bio-based monomers for synthesizing more stable PLA alternatives. She then ran away from polymers for a year as an intern at Oak Ridge National Laboratory investigating gas evolution from lithium ion battery materials. She was quickly drawn back into the polymer world, completing her PhD at the University of Minnesota with Tim Lodge studying the stimuli-responsive phase behaviour of block copolymers in ionic liquids. While there, she also promoted graduate student mental health both in the department and across the American Physical Society. Claire then moved to the Netherlands and worked at Utrecht University on developing a mechanochemical recycling method for polyolefins.