“Green” Synthesis of Unnatural Poly(amino acid) – A Sustainable and Polyfunctional Biomaterial Dr. Ivan Gitsov, Associate Professor, Chemistry Department, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry ABSTRACT This talk will present our latest results in the “green” synthesis of novel materials. Using semi-artificial enzymes (supramolecular complexes of an enzyme and amphiphilic linear-dendritic block copolymers) we are able to perform mild polymerizations of hydrophobic natural substrates in water and under environmentally friendly conditions. The polymerization, which will be the focus of discussion, involves tyrosine as the substrate/monomer and leads to an unnatural poly(amino acid), a polymer with free amino- and carboxylic groups at every repeating unit. This material is intrinsically biocompatible and shows rather unusual solution behavior due to the polybetaine nature of the macromolecules. BIOGRAPHY Ivan Gitsov graduated from University of Sofia “St Kliment Ohridski” with MS in organic chemistry. He completed his PhD thesis in polymer science at Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Polymers. After short stint at The R&D Institute for Special Chemicals in Sofia, he moved to Cornell University initially as Visiting Scientist and later as Research Associate, Manager of the Polymer Characterization Facility and finally as Visiting Assistant Professor. Currently he is Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at SUNY ESF, University Guest Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and member of the Michael M. Szwarc Polymer Research Institute and Syracuse Biomaterials Institute. Professor Gitsov is among the top 5 % of the most cited scientists in chemistry and his other honors include The Greve Fellowship in Science and Technology and Cottrell Scholarship.