Verena is a lecturer in Materials Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry. She came to Lancaster University from the University of York, where she was a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellow in the Advanced Functional Materials Group of the Department of Chemistry.

Verena studied for her PhD in the field of polymer chemistry at the Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Germany. Her research explores the fascinating area of self-organised soft matter, and centres on exploring and exploiting  aspects of polymer, colloid, and liquid crystal materials. The aim is to develop micron to nano-structured smart materials with applications in areas such as optical sensing, actuation (artificial muscles), photonics, and stimuli-responsive devices.