Dr. Nichollas Jaques

Dr. Nichollas Jaques is originally from Brazil, where he obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Materials Engineering from the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB) and his Master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG) under the supervision of Prof. Renate Wellen.

During his undergraduate studies, he investigated the crystallization kinetics of bio-derived polymer blends and composites. For his master’s research, he focused on the valorization of biofillers and their influence on the curing kinetics of bio-based epoxy resins. During his master’s, he also contributed to the best BioPLA project, a collaboration between Prof. Renate Wellen and Dr. Katharina Koschek (Fraunhofer IFAM, Germany), which explored biodegradation, photodegradation, and thermal degradation of PLA-based acrylate resins for the development of natural-fiber composites for automotive applications.

In 2025, Nichollas obtained a cotutelle Ph.D. jointly awarded by the University of Bordeaux (France) and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany) under the supervision of Prof. Henri Cramail and Prof.
Michael Meier. His Ph.D. formed part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie NIPU-EJD project, focusing on the synthesis of non-isocyanate polyurethanes (NIPUs) via polycondensation and thiol–ene chemistry. During this time, he also performed a short research stay at Henkel HQ (Germany) under the supervision of Dr. Olaf Hartmann, working on the development of reactive and non-reactive NIPU-based hot-melt adhesives.

Nichollas has authored 23 refereed publications (including 9 as first author) and holds an h-index of 12 (Google Scholar, 2025).

He joined Professor Dove’s group at the University of Birmingham in 2025 as part of the EPSRC project “Co-creating a Digital Platform for the Rapid Development of Sustainable Polymer Products.” His current
research focuses on the chemical modification of polysaccharides to enhance miscibility in biodegradable PVOH blends.