Prof Anwesha Sarkar from the University of Leeds is the 2024 recipient of the McBain Medal. Anwesha’s research programme focuses on fabrication of biopolymeric microgels and her research has brought significant advancements towards fundamental understanding of their bulk and interfacial behaviour to answer biophysical questions. Besides fabricating innovative microgels using alternative proteins with tailored performance on lubrication, she devises biomimetic soft surfaces with optimized roughness and wetting properties. This has enabled her team to discover the true behaviour of these microgels at biological interfaces such as orally relevant surfaces across scales. Her recent contribution on design and multiscale tribological characterization of plant-based sustainable microgels has enabled a completely new technologically viable platform for next-generation sustainable formulation design with future applications in food, medical devices and allied soft matter formulations.

The McBain Medal is presented annually to an early career researcher (within 15 years of the award of a PhD) for outstanding achievement in colloid and interface science. This full day meeting will honour Prof Anwesha Sarkar and at the same time the Medal will be presented.  

Prof. dr. ir. Stefan Bon says: “Many congratulations to Prof. Anwesha Sarkar. I am honoured to have been invited to this meeting as a guest speaker. It is going to be a fantastic day.“

This event will be of interest to researchers working on colloid and polymer chemistry, fine chemicals, formulated products, tribology, materials science, bio-interfaces and food.