Lewis recognized as an MRS Medalist

The Materials Research Society has named Jennifer A. Lewis, the Hans Thurnauer Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, as an MRS Medalist. She was cited for “pioneering contributions in the design of viscoelastic inks composed of colloidal, polymeric, and organometallic building blocks and their directed assembly into planar and 3D functional architectures.”

In the past 10 years, Lewis, an MRS Fellow and the first woman to receive a MRS Medal, has made major contributions in the areas of direct-write assembly of soft functional materials and the design of complex fluids with tunable phase behavior, structure, and rheological properties. Her research focuses on engineering the flow behavior and structure of soft matter composed of colloidal, polymeric, and molecular building blocks where she applies her expertise to the design of functional inks for planar and three-dimensional printing. Recently, she and her research group have produced highly conductive electrode inks for printed electronic and solar devices, scaffolds for tissue engineering, and lightweight structural materials.

Lewis, who is the former director of the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, joined the Illinois faculty in 1990, where she also is affiliated with the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. She has written more than 100 published papers and holds eight patents.

Among many other honors, she has been named a fellow of the Materials Research Society, the American Physical Society, and the American Ceramic Society. Earlier this month she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS).
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Contact: Jennifer Lewis, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, 217/244-4973. 

Photo: L. Brian Stauffer

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