# Ian Manners
Ian Manners FRS (1961 – 3 December 2023) was a British-Canadian chemist who worked on organometallic polymers and on crystallization-driven living self-assembly (CDSA) of block copolymers, a method for building uniform nanoscale fibers and platelets of controlled size.[1](https://royalsociety.org/people/ian-manners-11887/) He held the Canada 150 Research Chair in the Department of Chemistry at the [University of Victoria](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-victoria) from 2018, after faculty careers at the [University of Toronto](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-toronto) and the [University of Bristol](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-bristol).[2](https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/mannersgroup/ian-manners/) His 1992 ring-opening polymerization of strained metallocenophanes is credited with giving birth to the field of organometallic polymers, and his later work with crystallizable block copolymers established a widely used route to shape-controlled soft nanomaterials.[3](https://preview-www.nature.com/articles/s41565-024-01608-2)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born; died | 1961; 3 December 2023[1](https://royalsociety.org/people/ian-manners-11887/) |
| Training | First Class Honours BSc (1979–82) and PhD (1982–85) in chemistry, University of Bristol, with N. G. Connelly[2](https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/mannersgroup/ian-manners/) |
| Signature work | Living crystallization-driven self-assembly of block copolymer micelles; polyferrocenylsilanes via ring-opening polymerization of strained metallocenophanes[3](https://preview-www.nature.com/articles/s41565-024-01608-2); ["Multidimensional hierarchical self-assembly of amphiphilic cylindrical block comicelles"](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1261816), *Science*, 2015 |
| Career | Toronto 1990–2006; Bristol 2006–2018; University of Victoria 2018–2023[2](https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/mannersgroup/ian-manners/) |
| Scale of the method | Low-dispersity fiber and platelet micelles from roughly 20 nm seeds, with controlled lengths from 200 nm to 2 µm[4](https://doi.org/10.1039/d0sc06878k) |
| Honors | Steacie Prize 2000; Alexander von Humboldt Research Award 2011; Fellow of the Royal Society 2011[1](https://royalsociety.org/people/ian-manners-11887/) |
## Career
Manners completed a First Class Honours BSc (1979–82) and a PhD in chemistry (1982–85) at the University of Bristol, working under Prof. N. G. Connelly on organotransition metal radicals.[2](https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/mannersgroup/ian-manners/) He then held postdoctoral positions at the University of Aachen (1986–87, with P. Paetzold, on iminoboranes) and [Pennsylvania State University](https://www.edgepedia.org/pennsylvania-state-university) (1988–90, with H. R. Allcock, on polyphosphazenes).[2](https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/mannersgroup/ian-manners/)
His first faculty position was at the University of Toronto in 1990.[3](https://preview-www.nature.com/articles/s41565-024-01608-2) In 2006 he returned to the UK as Professor and Chair of Inorganic, Macromolecular, and Materials Chemistry, and EU Marie Curie Chair, at the University of Bristol.[2](https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/mannersgroup/ian-manners/) Twelve years later he returned to Canada, taking up a Canada 150 Research Chair in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, in 2018.[2](https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/mannersgroup/ian-manners/)
## Polyferrocenylsilanes and organometallic polymers
The work that opened his research career came in 1992, with the invention of a novel bent-back, ring-strained silicon-bridged ferrocenylsilane precursor that underwent a mild thermally induced ring-opening polymerization to give polyferrocenylsilane.[3](https://preview-www.nature.com/articles/s41565-024-01608-2) This event is described as having given birth to the field of organometallic polymers.[3](https://preview-www.nature.com/articles/s41565-024-01608-2) He pioneered the use of anionic, thermal, and photochemical methods for the ring-opening polymerisation of strained metallocenophane precursor molecules, introducing metallopolymers with properties such as semiconductivity, photoconductivity, and etch resistance.[1](https://royalsociety.org/people/ian-manners-11887/) A focus of his group was polyferrocenylsilane block copolymers, which were developed in his group, with more recent work extending to block copolymers with crystallizable π-conjugated or biodegradable segments.[5](https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/mannersgroup/crystallization-driven-self-assembly/)
## Crystallization-driven living self-assembly
The origin of living CDSA is traced to 1998, when Manners' group and another group first observed cylindrical micelles formed by core-crystallization of a semicrystalline poly(ferrocenyldimethylsilane) diblock copolymer in a selective solvent.[6](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0079670019302011) Conventional amphiphilic block copolymers with amorphous cores form spheres, cylinders, vesicles, and lamellae through entropy-driven separation, and cannot generate one-dimensional cylindrical or two-dimensional platelet micelles in a controlled way; adding a non-solvent for the crystalline block instead promotes core crystallization and drives the assembly toward low-curvature fibers and platelets.[6](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0079670019302011) • [7](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2026/cs/d6cs00030d)
Seeded growth made the process living. In 2007, seed micelles prepared by sonication of polydisperse fiber-like micelles enabled predetermined length control, because the seed termini remained active to further growth.[4](https://doi.org/10.1039/d0sc06878k) The method operates at ambient temperature, is potentially scalable, and gives access to branched and segmented structures.[4](https://doi.org/10.1039/d0sc06878k) Since 2011 it has been extended beyond polyferrocenylsilanes to poly(L-lactide), polyethylene, polycarbonate, polycaprolactone, polythiophene, and other crystallizable blocks, and surveyed applications include nanomedicine, colloid stabilization, catalysis, optoelectronics, information storage, and surface functionalization.[4](https://doi.org/10.1039/d0sc06878k)
## Representative work
**Multidimensional hierarchical self-assembly of amphiphilic cylindrical block comicelles** (Science 2015, 347, 1329) showed that amphiphilic cylindrical block comicelles assemble hierarchically into multidimensional structures.[5](https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/mannersgroup/crystallization-driven-self-assembly/) **Uniform patchy and hollow rectangular platelet micelles from crystallizable polymer blends** (Science 2016, 352, 697) showed that crystallizable polymer blends yield uniform patchy and hollow rectangular platelet micelles.[5](https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/mannersgroup/crystallization-driven-self-assembly/)
**Long-range exciton transport in conjugated polymer nanofibers prepared by seeded growth** ([Science 2018, 360, 897–900](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aar8104)) described organic semiconducting nanofibers with a crystalline poly(di-n-hexylfluorene) core and a segmented corona of polyethylene glycol in the center and polythiophene at the ends.[8](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aar8104) [Exciton](https://www.edgepedia.org/exciton) transfer from the core to the polythiophene corona occurred along the interchain π–π stacking direction with very long diffusion lengths, roughly 170 nm or more, and a diffusion coefficient of about 0.5 cm² s⁻¹, against tens of nanometers for ordinary organic semiconductors; the uniform exciton energy landscape created by the well-ordered crystalline core made this possible.[8](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aar8104) • [9](https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/long-range-exciton-transport-in-conjugated-polymer-nanofibers-pre/)
## Honors and recognition
Manners received the Steacie Prize for Natural Sciences in 2000 and an Alexander von Humboldt Research Award in 2011.[1](https://royalsociety.org/people/ian-manners-11887/) He was elected a [Fellow of the Royal Society](https://www.edgepedia.org/fellow-of-the-royal-society) in 2011 and was a member of the Royal Society of Canada, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the Chemical Institute of Canada.[1](https://royalsociety.org/people/ian-manners-11887/)
## References
1. Professor Ian Manners FRS | Royal Society. https://royalsociety.org/people/ian-manners-11887/
2. Ian Manners | The Manners Group. https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/mannersgroup/ian-manners/
3. Ian Manners (1961–2023) | Nature Nanotechnology. https://preview-www.nature.com/articles/s41565-024-01608-2
4. Emerging applications for living crystallization-driven self-assembly | Chemical Science, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1039/d0sc06878k
5. Crystallization-Driven Self-Assembly | The Manners Group. https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/mannersgroup/crystallization-driven-self-assembly/
6. Concepts, fabrication methods and applications of living crystallization-driven self-assembly of block copolymers | Progress in Polymer Science. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0079670019302011
7. Surface-initiated living crystallization-driven self-assembly | Chemical Society Reviews, 2026. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2026/cs/d6cs00030d
8. Long-range exciton transport in conjugated polymer nanofibers prepared by seeded growth | Science, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aar8104
9. Long-range exciton transport in conjugated polymer nanofibers prepared by seeded growth | University of Bristol research information. https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/long-range-exciton-transport-in-conjugated-polymer-nanofibers-pre/
10. Probing the Analogy between Living CDSA and Living Covalent Polymerizations | Macromolecules, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.1c02241
11. Probing the Growth Kinetics for the Formation of Uniform 1D Block Copolymer Nanoparticles by Living CDSA | ACS Nano, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.8b01353
12. Uniform segmented platelet micelles with compositionally distinct and selectively degradable cores | Nature Chemistry, 2023. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-023-01177-2
13. Crystallization-driven self-assembly of P3HT-b-PPP, an all-conjugated diblock copolymer | Polymer Chemistry, 2024. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2024/py/d4py00154k
14. Probing the Heteroepitaxial Seeded Growth and Self-Sorting Processes of Segmented Co-Micelles | Angewandte Chemie, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202506872
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Physical world and mathematics › Physical and mathematical scientists › Chemists › Researchers in polymer, supramolecular, and materials chemistry › Block copolymers and nanostructured polymeric materials*
*Initially written Sep 20, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 25, 2026; Oct 11, 2026 · Last review: Sep 25, 2026*
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