Dr. Ivan Gitsov is currently Director of the Michael Szwarc Polymer Research Institute & Professor at the State University of New York—ESF. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Polymer Chemistry from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Between 1996 and 2000, he was Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Cornell University. In 2011 and 2013, he was a University Guest Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland. In 2017, he was awarded the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities. He is the 2022 Fulbright Scholar and is ranked among the top 2% most cited scientists in the world. His research is focused on the design and formation of materials with novel molecular and supramolecular architectures and their use in interfacial transport, biocatalysis and "green" synthetic chemistry.