The year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of a milestone paper published in 1920 by Hermann Staudinger (Über Polymerisation. Ber. Dtsch. Chem. Ges. 1920;53:1073–85) in which he introduced the groundbreaking hypothesis of the existence of long chain molecules, consisting of a large number of covalently linked monomeric units. This paper, and Staudinger’s subsequent papers on the topic, can be considered as a foundation of the field of macromolecular chemistry and polymer science.
To celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the 'Macromolecular Hypothesis', Progress on Polymer Science has invited world leaders in polymer science and engineering to share their insights in the form of reviews, trends, or perspectives on the current, past and future developments in macromolecular chemistry. These contributions have been made available in 'open access' format and we, the Editors of Progress in Polymer Science, invite you to explore these perspectives on what the future of the field might hold.