Dorina M. Opris is an organic chemist who uses her synthetic skills to develop novel functional materials. She obtained her B.Sc. in chemistry at Babes-Bolyai University (BBU), Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in 1997. She then joined Natex S.A. as a chemist developing flavors and simultaneously did her MSc in chemistry at BBU. From  1999 to 2001 she worked with Prof. Grosu at BBU toward a PhD and then joined the group of Prof. Schlüter at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, where she finished her PhD in February 2005. After moving to Zürich in
November 2006, she joined the Laboratory of Functional Polymers, Empa, Dübendorf, Switzerland, as PostDoc and later as scientist. Since 2014  she has been the leader of Functional Dielectric Elastomers group at the Laboratory of Functional Polymers. The aim of her work is to develop dielectric elastomers with increased dielectric permittivity to be used as dielectric in devices operated at low voltages. She is married and the mother of two children.

 

Current Position

2023 –                   Adjunct Professor, ETH Zürich, Department of Materials, Switzerland

2014 –                   Group leader at Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology,
                               Laboratory for Functional Polymers, Switzerland

 

Previous Positions

2009 – 2013         Research Scientist, Functional Polymers Division, Empa, Switzerland

2006 – 2009         PostDoc, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology

                              Functional Polymers, Empa, Switzerland, Supervisor: Dr. C. Löwe.

2001 – 2004         PhD Candidate (Assistant in Chemistry) Organic Chemistry, Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany

1999 – 2001         PhD Candidate, Faculty of Chemistry, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania

1997 – 2001         Researcher (food flavor field), Natex, Cluj-Napoca (full time 1997 – 1999 and part time 1999 – 2001)

 

Education

1992 – 1997         Bachelor degree in Chemistry, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

1998 – 1999         Master degree in Chemistry, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
                               Thesis supervisor: Prof. I. Grosu

2001 – 2005         PhD degree in Chemistry

                               Organic Chemistry, Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany

                               PhD Supervisors: Prof. A. D. Schlüter (presently at ETH) and Prof. H.-U. Reissig

 

Awards and Fellowships

2020                      ERC Consolidator Grant "Synthesis of novel stimuli responsive dielectric polymers and their use in powerful
                               transducers", 1’999’715 €.

2019                      EuroEAP Society award “For important contributions to the field of new materials for dielectric elastomer
                               transducers" at the Ninth international conference on Electromechanically Active Polymer (EAP)
                               transducers & artificial muscles, Dresden, Germany, June 5th 2019.

1992 – 1997         Romanian Government Scholarship for best students, Faculty of Chemistry, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania

2001 - 2004          Fellow of the German Science Foundation (DFG) Sfb 448 “Mesoscopically Structured Hybrid Materials”
 

Highlights

2023                   Front page of Empa Quarterly, Focus: Accelerating research - we shape talents, July 2023.
                             https://www.empa.ch/documents

2018-2019          “Profile” – the annual report of the Swiss National Science Foundation

                             http://www.snf.ch/en/theSNSF/profile/profile/Pages/default.aspx

2018-2019          Annual report of the ETH board “Actuators instead of motors”

                             https://www.ethrat.ch/en/node/4938

2017                    Empa news: “A rubber power plant”

                             /web/s604/elektrischer-gummi

2016                    Advanced Science News: “An All-Organic Elastomeric Electret Composite”

                             https://www.advancedsciencenews.com/organic-elastomeric-electret-composite/

 

Teaching Activities

2018 – present                  ETH Zürich: Lecturer of the course “Introduction to Macromolecular Chemistry” and the polymer part of the course
                                             “Materials Science I/II” for chemistry and materials science students, respectively

2001 – 2002                        Teaching assistant in the lab course “Organic Chemistry” for bachelor students in chemistry,
                                              FU Berlin, Germany

1999 – 2001                        Teaching assistant in the lab course “Organic Chemistry” for chemistry students, Babes-Bolyai University,
                                              Cluj-Napoca, Romania

 

 

Memberships of Scientific

2014 –                                 Member of the Swiss Chemical Society
2015 –                                 Member of the scientific committee, Research Network “EuroEAP society”
2016 –                                 Member of the Empa research commission (FOKO A)

 

Institutional responsibilities

Since 2016                            Member of the Empa research commission (FOKO A)

Representing the Functional Polymers Laboratory at several meetings with industry delegations, including those from Danfos (Danmark), Dow (Switzerland), Evonik (Germany), Wacker (Germany), Abatek, IBM (Switzerland), Swiss Plastics (Switzerland), Panasonic (Japan/Belgium), Jonson Electrics (Switzerland), Sateco (Switzerland), Logitech (Switzerland).

 

Career Breaks

01.01.2005 – 01.11.2006     Pregnancy and maternity break

10.05.2013 – 01.10.2013     Maternity break