chemistry

Steven Armes

Steven Armes is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Steven Armes rather than just read about it. In short: Steven Peter Armes (born 1962) is a Professor of polymer chemistry and colloid chemistry at the University of Sheffield. Education Armes was educated at Whitley Abbey Comprehensive School in Coventry and the University of Bristol where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1983 followed by a PhD in 1987 for research supervised by Brian Vincent.

Key takeaways

Steven Armes belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Steven Armes to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Steven Armes from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Steven Peter Armes (born 1962) is a Professor of polymer chemistry and colloid chemistry at the University of Sheffield.

Education Armes was educated at Whitley Abbey Comprehensive School in Coventry and the University of Bristol where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1983 followed by a PhD in 1987 for research supervised by Brian Vincent.

Career and research After a postdoctoral research at Los Alamos National Laboratory Armes became a lecturer at the University of Sussex in 1989 where he worked until 2004. He moved to Sheffield to become Professor of Polymer and Colloid Chemistry in 2004. As of 2016, he is a director of Farapack Polymers Limited, a corporate spin-off from the University of Sheffield. Armes group does research on polymer chemistry and colloid chemistry. Using polymerisation techniques such as reversible addition−fragmentation chain-transfer polymerization (RAFT) and atom-transfer radical-polymerization (ATRP) his laboratory synthesises a wide range of polymers. His research focuses on the synthesis and application of polymers – long-chain molecules formed from many repeating units known as monomers. In particular, Steven's research group has developed new ways to make water-soluble or water-dispersible polymers based on methacrylic monomers. A powerful approach is to use polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA). For example, a water-insoluble polymer can be grown from one end of a water-soluble polymer in aqueous solution. The growing hydrophobic chain leads to in situ self-assembly, forming copolymer nanoparticles of tuneable size and shape. These nanoparticles have a wide range of potential applications, including as a long-term storage medium for stem cells, viscosity modifiers, novel microcapsules and nanoparticle lubricants. His other research interests include designing novel biocompatible copolymer gels and vesicles and developing microscopic nanocomposite particles, which have applications in paints and anti-reflective coatings. Steven also has a fruitful collaboration with space scientists based in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States, for whom he designs synthetic mimics to aid our understanding the behaviour of micrometeorites travelling at hypervelocities in outer space. Armes has developed robust new synthetic routes to controlled-structure water-soluble polymers. He optimised the living radical polymerisation of hydrophilic methacrylates, discovered a new class of 'schizophrenic' diblock copolymers whose amphiphilicity can be switched on or off, and has designed a range of novel biocompatible block copolymer gels and vesicles. His work on water-borne polymer colloids has led to novel shell cross-linked micelles and nanocomposite particles, with applications in paints, anti-reflective coatings and as stimulus-responsive Pickering emulsifiers.

Awards and honours Armes was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2014. More recently, he has pioneered polymerisation-induced self-assembly to produce a range of bespoke spherical, worm-like and vesicular nano-objects via RAFT dispersion polymerisation. In 2013, Armes was awarded the Tilden Prize by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

References

This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0 license.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Steven Armes

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Steven Armes claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Steven Armes before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Steven Armes ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Steven Armes

In research: Steven Armes appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Steven Armes in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Steven Armes is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1962 births, Alumni of the University of Bristol, British chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Steven Armes outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Steven Armes in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Steven Armes means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Steven Armes out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Steven Armes in simple terms?

Steven Peter Armes (born 1962) is a Professor of polymer chemistry and colloid chemistry at the University of Sheffield. Education Armes was educated at Whitley Abbey Comprehensive School in Coventry and the University of Bristol where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1983 followed by…

Why does Steven Armes matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Steven Armes?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Steven Armes.