Who we are

The Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences (IMC), is an internationally recognised research and educational organisation in the field of synthetic polymers. Its mission is advancing the area of macromolecular chemistry, organic chemistry, macromolecular physical chemistry and macromolecular physics including their related interdisciplinary fields with the purpose of acquiring knowledge about relations between structure, properties and function of macromolecular systems and about controlled creation of supramolecular structures.

Our research is oriented on the development of new synthetic and technological processes, on new polymer materials and their applications as well as on design of polymers for electronics, for medicinal chemistry and for tissue engineering including investigation of interactions of biological systems with polymeric materials. The combination of interdisciplinary teams of knowledgeable experts with up-to-date experimental facilities is the main asset of the Institute. Although the Institute is primarily focused on fundamental research, it also closely cooperates with the application sphere. This is particularly true for application of polymers in medicine, but also for material research and for assessment of the ecological impact of plastic waste. The Institute provides training in polymer science for postgraduate, graduate as well as undergraduate students enrolled at Czech universities. It also traditionally runs international postgraduate courses in polymer science under the auspices of UNESCO and IUPAC.

Last, but not least, the IMC has many years of experience in organising national and international scientific meetings. Every year, the Institute organises one or two international conferences (PMM – Prague Meetings on Macromolecules) devoted to one selected topic of polymer chemistry, physics, physical chemistry or medical application of polymers.

The Institute also follows the recently formulated strategy of the Czech Academy of Sciences called Strategy AV21, which is based on the multi-disciplinary and inter-institutional cooperation. In 2015–2021, IMC represented the core of Research Program “VP10-Molecules and Materials for Life”. The Institute is actively involved in Research Program "SP26-Groundbreaking technologies for the future - sensors, data, AI and quantum technologies", where scientists from the IMC are working on new correlative techniques for the analysis and imaging of biologic and synthetic polymer materials.

In 2017, the Czech Republic joined the European Polymer Federation (EPF) as a full member and Jiří Kotek, the Director of the Institute, became the National Representative. In 2019, Dr. Kotek was elected president of this international scientific organisation for the period 2020–2022.

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