Jeff Renaud

Western University chemist Elizabeth Gillies has won a prestigious national research award for pioneering a new approach to polymer science, developing alternatives to traditional plastics that can remain stable until they intentionally and rapidly break down. Gillies, Canada Research Chair in Polymeric Biomaterials, is the recipient of the 2026 NSERC John C. Polanyi Award. Created in 2006, the award recognizes an individual or team whose research conducted in Canada has led to a recent outstanding advance in the natural sciences or engineering. Gillies’ achievement marks the first time a Western researcher has received the honour. “This award recognizes research that fundamentally changes how we understand the world,” said Penny Pexman, Western’s vice-president (research). “Elizabeth Gillies exemplifies that spirit of discovery through pioneering work in polymer science that combines scientific creativity and practical potential.” Gillies has spent most of the past decade developing self-immolative polymers, a class of materials designed to dismantle themselves when exposed to a specific trigger, such as light, heat or a change in chemical conditions. Polymers are a broad class of materials that include the plastics we use every day. Many are designed to be durable and long-lasting – a most useful property that can also make them difficult to break down after use. Self-immolative polymers, or SIPs, are designed to stay intact until a protective end cap is chemically removed. The reaction then travels along the chain, converting the polymer into small molecules that can be more readily broken down or recovered, rather than leaving behind long-lasting plastic waste. “It’s basically an end-to-end mechanism that travels down the polymer backbone and converts it completely to small molecules,” said Gillies, a professor in Western’s departments of chemistry and chemical and biochemical engineering. “The advantage is you can have a material, like a plastic, that retains its properties until you want it to break down at the end of its useful life.” The potential applications range from drug delivery, where nanoparticles or gels made from these materials could help control when and where a treatment is released, to fertilizer coatings that help nutrients reach plants more efficiently. By improving nutrient use and reducing waste, the technology could support healthier crop growth and strengthen food security.  

New materials offer practical advantage

Gillies and her collaborators have developed several polymer structures and explored their properties, including polyglyoxylates, a class of materials that can be made from commercially available starting materials. “There are still significant challenges to overcome. In consumer products, one of the biggest is cost. Industry has developed very efficient, inexpensive ways to make conventional plastics, so we need to find applications where our materials can offer a practical advantage,” said Gillies. “In biomedical research, it’s a long process to take an innovation from proof of concept to the clinic. We’re working with academic and industry collaborators to better understand where these polymers could make a difference.” For Gillies, the Polanyi Award also recognizes the contributions of the students and postdoctoral researchers who have advanced the work in her laboratory. “The ideas and progress recognized with this award can also be attributed to some of my top students and postdoctoral fellows,” said Gillies. “A big part of what we do as professors is train students to do research, help them learn how to write and communicate their work and prepare them for their future careers. Our connections with companies and research groups around the world help create opportunities for them to move on to postdoctoral fellowships and jobs.” The national award builds on an earlier milestone in Gillies’ career. In 2006, she received the provincial John C. Polanyi Prize, which recognizes outstanding researchers in the early stages of their careers at Ontario universities.