Javier Read de Alaniz(link is external) is going home, in a matter of speaking. The UC Santa Barbara professor of chemistry and biochemistry will collaborate with his undergraduate alma mater, New Mexico Highlands University, in a high-stakes effort to create biopolymers to replace plastics. Thanks to a Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) award from the National Science Foundation, NMHU, UCSB and UCLA materials scientists will leverage their research, technological prowess and strength in diversity to the problem of petroleum-based polymers.