Ina Vollmer

Ina Vollmer is an assistant professor at the Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis group at Utrecht University, Netherlands. She focuses on mechano-catalytic depolymerization of plastic waste to produce high-quality chemical building blocks, combining heterogeneous catalysis with mechano-chemical bond scission at room temperature.

• Education: Process Engineering (Hamburg University of Applied Science), Chemical Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2015), PhD in methane aromatization over zeolite catalysts (2019).
• Research: Develops novel strategies for plastic recycling using ceramic grinding spheres functionalized with catalytic sites, enabling radical-based polymer conversion without high-temperature pyrolysis.
• Awards: Veni and XS grants from Dutch Research Council (NWO) in 2021 for room-temperature plastic conversion technology.
• Patents: Holds a patent (2022) for mechano-catalytic plastic recycling methods.