(Richards)

(Wang)

Research
/
Areas of Research
Polymers and Soft Materials

Soft materials and polymers are ubiquitous in our lives and form the basis of many advances in medicine, sustainability, manufacturing, and clean water access. What makes these materials unique is that their structure and dynamics span multiple length- and time- scales, and these microscopic characteristics can be engineered to control material properties. At Northwestern, researchers seek to discover and exploit these relationships to design materials that improve the performance of technologies that address important societal challenges including lowering the cost of renewable energy generation and storage, generating renewable fuels, circularizing the plastics economy, and creating the next-generation of high-performance composites.

Research Areas

Areas of emphasis for faculty in our department include controlling electronic and ionic transport, enhancing mechanical durability and reprocessability, enabling the next generation of soft robots and flexible electronics, and discovering new material properties and structure-property relationships. These efforts are informed by a deep expertise in synthesis, fabrication, and characterization techniques including small angle scattering, optical microscopy, electrochemical measurements, rheology and mechanics, and simulation.

At Northwestern, the soft matter and polymer research community is vibrant and includes faculty from diverse personal and academic backgrounds. The proximity to Argonne National Laboratory, our strong inter-departmental relationships, and the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN) make our department and Northwestern a hub for soft matter and polymer research world-wide.

Faculty

	Linda Broadbelt _{Sarah Rebecca Roland Professor} _{Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering} _{Associate Dean for Research} _{The Broadbelt Lab is developing polyurethanes that can be recycled via simple thermal treatment or from which monomer can be recovered by solvolytic means.}

	Wesley Burghardt _{Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering} _{Associate Dean of Undergraduate Engineering}

	Jeffrey Lopez _{Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering (beginning September 1, 2021)} _{Polymeric materials for energy storage applications, charge transport in polymer membranes, reactions at electrochemical interfaces, automated experimentation}

	Richard Lueptow _{Professor of Mechanical Engineering (and by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering} _{Senior Associate Dean for Research}

	Tobin Marks _{Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Catalytic Chemistry and Chemical and Biological Engineering and (by courtesy) Materials Science and Engineering} _{The Marks group has chemists and engineers working on waste polymer deconstruction and recycling, solar energy, and efficient hydrocarbon utilization.}

	Chad Mirkin _{George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, and (by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering and Biomedical Engineering} _{Mirkin explores the enormous parameter space of polyelemental nanoparticles, identifying ones for fuel cells, solar energy, and light emission.}

	Monica Olvera de la Cruz _{Lawyer Taylor Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry and (by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering, Physics and Astronomy}

	Jeffrey Richards _{Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering} _{The Richards Laboratory studies the properties of soft materials and engineers them for applications including renewable energy storage and new sensors.}

	George Schatz _{Professor of Chemistry and (by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering} _{Schatz uses molecular dynamics and electronic structure theory methods to describe self-assembly of biopolymers, and polymer mechanical/structural properties.}

	Igal Szleifer _{Christina Enroth-Cugell Professor of Biomedical Engineering} _{Professor of Chemistry} _{Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering} _{Professor of Medicine}

	John Torkelson _{Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering} _{The Torkelson group seeks to both understand molecular-scale behavior of polymers to engineer their properties by tuning molecular-scale responses via dynamic chemistry, nanoscale confinement, chain architecture, and novel solid-state processing, among other methods.}

	Mitchell Wang _{Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering} _{The Wang Laboratory uses optics, synthesis, and high-throughput characterization to understand and design polymers for biomaterials and sustainability.}

Chemical & Biological Engineering

Research
/
Areas of Research
Polymers and Soft Materials

Research Areas

Faculty

Linda Broadbelt

_{Sarah Rebecca Roland Professor}
_{Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering}
_{Associate Dean for Research}

Wesley Burghardt

_{Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering}
_{Associate Dean of Undergraduate Engineering}

Jeffrey Lopez

_{Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering (beginning September 1, 2021)}

Richard Lueptow

_{Professor of Mechanical Engineering (and by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering}
_{Senior Associate Dean for Research}

Tobin Marks

_{Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Catalytic Chemistry and Chemical and Biological Engineering and (by courtesy) Materials Science and Engineering}

Chad Mirkin

_{George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, and (by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering and Biomedical Engineering}

Monica Olvera de la Cruz

_{Lawyer Taylor Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry and (by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering, Physics and Astronomy}

Jeffrey Richards

_{Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering}

George Schatz

_{Professor of Chemistry and (by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering}

Igal Szleifer

_{Christina Enroth-Cugell Professor of Biomedical Engineering}
_{Professor of Chemistry}
_{Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering}
_{Professor of Medicine}

John Torkelson

_{Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering}

Mitchell Wang

_{Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering}

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Contact Info

Research / Areas of ResearchPolymers and Soft Materials

Research Areas

Faculty

Sarah Rebecca Roland ProfessorProfessor of Chemical and Biological EngineeringAssociate Dean for Research

Professor of Chemical and Biological EngineeringAssociate Dean of Undergraduate Engineering

Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering (beginning September 1, 2021)

Professor of Mechanical Engineering (and by courtesy) Chemical and Biological EngineeringSenior Associate Dean for Research

Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Catalytic Chemistry and Chemical and Biological Engineering and (by courtesy) Materials Science and Engineering

George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, and (by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering and Biomedical Engineering

Lawyer Taylor Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry and (by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering, Physics and Astronomy

Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Professor of Chemistry and (by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering

Christina Enroth-Cugell Professor of Biomedical EngineeringProfessor of ChemistryProfessor of Chemical and Biological EngineeringProfessor of Medicine

Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering

Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering

More in this section

Contact Info

Research
/
Areas of Research
Polymers and Soft Materials

_{Sarah Rebecca Roland Professor}
_{Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering}
_{Associate Dean for Research}

_{Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering}
_{Associate Dean of Undergraduate Engineering}

_{Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering (beginning September 1, 2021)}

_{Professor of Mechanical Engineering (and by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering}
_{Senior Associate Dean for Research}

_{Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Catalytic Chemistry and Chemical and Biological Engineering and (by courtesy) Materials Science and Engineering}

_{George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, and (by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering and Biomedical Engineering}

_{Lawyer Taylor Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry and (by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering, Physics and Astronomy}

_{Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering}

_{Professor of Chemistry and (by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering}

_{Christina Enroth-Cugell Professor of Biomedical Engineering}
_{Professor of Chemistry}
_{Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering}
_{Professor of Medicine}

_{Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering}

_{Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering}