The Ward group is interested in designing, synthesizing, and studying responsive material for applications in drug delivery and coatings. Using supramolecular chemistry, we synthesize amphiphiles that can self-assemble into vesicles or micelles. We study the formation of nanostructures in aqueous solutions and study their degradation, crosslinking and functionalization under different chemical conditions. Students interested in this research will gain experience in organic synthesis and study the properties of their synthesized compounds using techniques including UV-Vis, fluorescence, IR, NMR spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, thermal gravimetric analysis, polarized optical microscopy, dynamic light scattering and rheology.