By Katherine Kanakanui
The award, given once every other year, recognizes outstanding accomplishments and unusual innovation in basic or applied polymer science by scientists early in their careers.

Frank Leibfarth, Royce Murray Distinguished Term Professor of Chemistry at UNC-Chapel Hill, has been named the recipient of the 2027 Carl S. Marvel Award for Creative Polymer Chemistry, presented by the Division of Polymer Chemistry of the American Chemical Society. The award, given once every other year, recognizes outstanding accomplishments and unusual innovation in basic or applied polymer science by scientists early in their careers.
Leibfarth, who will attend the American Chemical Society’s Spring 2027 meeting in March in New Orleans, will present his research at a half-day symposium to be held in his honor.
“Creative polymer synthesis that provides solutions to pressing societal challenges is at the core of what our group at UNC seeks to achieve,” said Leibfarth. “Receiving the Carl Marvel Award for Creative Polymer Chemistry is an extraordinary recognition for the boundary-pushing science that so many wonderful UNC undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs have pursued in the lab.”
Leibfarth’s research group combines several branches of chemistry to create and modify polymers with an emphasis on making materials more functional and sustainable. Rather than simply developing new materials, the researchers seek to understand how small changes at the molecular level can produce major differences in how a material behaves.
That approach has led the group into research addressing a wide range of scientific and societal challenges. A key focus has been the discovery of strategies to design new polymers with better recyclability and innovative chemistries to transform polymeric waste into valuable products. In one approach, simple building blocks derived from renewable resources are fashioned into polymers using catalysts that precisely control the three-dimensional arrangement of atoms, giving the resulting materials capabilities not found in conventional petroleum-derived plastics. In a complementary effort, Leibfarth chemically modifies plastic waste so it can perform more sophisticated functions without having to create entirely new materials, providing additional opportunities to re-use plastics and reduce waste.
Leibfarth has also worked closely with stakeholders in North Carolina, including the NC Collaboratory and General Assembly, to solve environmental challenges in his home state. Leibfarth and his collaborators are developing materials that can capture PFAS—often called “forever chemicals” because they persist for long periods in the environment—from contaminated water. The NC Pure Project, which he co-directs with Orlando Coronell, Philip C. Singer Distinguished Professor, has piloted promising technologies in four municipal water treatment plants in the state. They also have co-founded a startup company with the help of Innovate Carolina—Sorbenta Inc.—to commercialize PFAS remediation technology.
Leibfarth’s innovations reflect a research philosophy that connects the design of molecules with the performance of real-world materials. The work also crosses traditional scientific boundaries, bringing together organic chemistry, polymer chemistry, materials science, engineering and biotechnology.
The Marvel Award adds to a series of recent national honors for Leibfarth. In 2025, he was named the Blavatnik National Laureate in Chemical Sciences and received both the Polymer Chemistry Lectureship Award and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
By Dave DeFusco, Department of Chemistry
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