After earning his doctorate from TU Clausthal in 2007, Sebastian Seiffert did research for several years at Harvard University. In 2013 he completed his professorial credential in polymer science at Freie Universität Berlin. Since April of 2014, he has been a professor of supramolecular polymeric materials at Freie Universität and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin. Earlier this year he won an ADUC Prize, awarded by the Working Group of German University Chemistry Professors of the German Chemical Society (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, GDCh), a learned society and professional association for German chemists.

Seiffert's research focuses on sensitive and supramolecular gels, i.e., particles that can react to their environment and can be used, for example, as a kind of building block for physico-chemical models, or as an artificial environment for living cells, to investigate if and how they respond to their environment. They are finding increasing application in fields such as medicine, for example, to improve blood dialysis. Seiffert's work is a continuation of the work of the polymer researcher Reimund Stadler, who is the namesake of the prize.