Journal of Materials C

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Profile: Emerging Investigators 2016: novel design strategies for new functional materials Cite this: J. Mater. Chem. C, 2016, 4, 3885

DOI: 10.1039/c6tc90079h

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gained throughout the different institu- tions: a background in photonics (PhD), unusual nanofabrication techniques at the University of Illinois and experience in fabrication and characterization of optoelectronic devices at ICFO. In September 2015, Agustı´n joined the Insti- tute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) as a Senior Researcher.

Agustı´n Mihi received a PhD in physics Markus Gallei studied chemistry at the Published on 27 April 2016. Downloaded 06/05/2016 20:48:24. from the University of Seville, his Technical University of Darmstadt in research was carried out at the Institute Germany, where he received his Diploma of Materials Science of Seville (CSIC). degree in 2007. For his PhD research he Agustı´n has been awarded with a Beckman worked in the field of ‘‘Synthesis of Func- Institute postdoctoral fellowship at the tional Metalloblock Copolymers’’ at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, German Institute for (DKI) in an ICFOnest research fellowship at Darmstadt. In 2011 he spent a year at the Institute of Photonic Sciences in the Helmholtz Centre Geesthacht (in Barcelona ICFO (Barcelona, Spain), the the group of Prof. V. Abetz) working 2013-Martı´ Franque´s Fellowship from Feng Gao is an Assistant Professor at the with stimuli-responsive -based the Rovira I Virgili University (Tarragona, Department of Physics, Chemistry and membranes before he went to the group Spain), a 2014 Ramo´n y Cajal Fellowship Biology (IFM) at Linko¨ping University of Professor Rehahn as junior researcher from the Spanish Ministry and a 2014 (Sweden), working on organic and per- group leader. Besides the synthesis and ERC Starting Grant. Agustı´n’s research ovskite optoelectronics. In his PhD work applications of stimuli-responsive poly- activities are mainly focused on the at the Cavendish Laboratory of the Uni- mers and metallopolymers, his research design, fabrication and characterization versity of Cambridge (UK), he studied interests focus on the preparation of of photonic structures that enhance the device physics of polymer-based solar polymer colloidal crystals and preceramic light matter interaction in emerging cells. Before that, he obtained his BSc polymers. optoelectronic devices. His profile is and MSc degrees in physics from Nanjing quite unique in terms of the expertise University (China).

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Profile Journal of Materials Chemistry C

Professor Colin Nuckolls. His current research interests include the utilization of cyclopenta-fused polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as functional materials and the design and synthesis of morphology- controllable conducting polymers. His per- sonal interests include home brewing hoppy American IPAs and German-originating beers, traveling (festivals are always a great destination), dreaming about owning a classic Chevrolet Camero or International Scout, wearing baseball caps, and Texas A&M football!

Nicholas Strandwitz is an Assistant Professor Per Eklund (PhD 2007) is an Associate in the Materials Science and Engineering Professor and leads the Energy Materials Department at Lehigh University focusing Group of the Thin Film Physics Division on new techniques and chemistries in at Linko¨ping University, Sweden, where atomic layer deposition and interfacial elec- he joined the faculty in 2009. His main tronic properties between semiconductors research interests encompass the wider and dielectrics. His BS degree was obtained area of thin-film ceramics primarily for from The Pennsylvania State University in energy applications, including thermo- Engineering Science. He earned his PhD at electrics, ionic conductors, inherently U.C. Santa Barbara in the Materials Depart- nanolaminated ‘MAX phases’ and their ment under Prof. Galen D. Stucky and con- 2D counterparts ‘MXenes’, and for elec- ducted postdoctoral studies at the California trical contacts and tools. Eklund has Institute of Technology with Prof. Nathan S. B100 published articles and an h index Sarah Staniland is not restricted by tradi- Lewis. of 24. He is an ERC Starting Grant tional scientific disciplines. She has a Holder, Wallenberg Academy Fellow degree (MChem 2001) and PhD (magnetic and member of the Young Academy of materials, 2005) in Chemistry from the Sweden (2011–2016). University of Edinburgh, undertook an EPSRC fellowship (2005–2008) based in Biology (Edinburgh) that involved work- Published on 27 April 2016. Downloaded 06/05/2016 20:48:24. ing in biotechnology and geomicrobiology departments in Tokyo and Cape Town, and held a lectureship in Bionanoscience in the school of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leeds (2008–2013). Sarah most recently completed the circle by moving back to a chemistry department, this time in the University of Sheffield, to Nicole A. Benedek is an Assistant Professor take up a senior lectureship in Bio- in the Department of Materials Science nanoscience. She is a multidisciplinary and Engineering at Cornell University. scientist conducting research on the pro- After completing her PhD in Applied Kyle N. Plunkett is an Associate Professor duction of precise magnetic nanomaterials Physics and Chemistry at RMIT University, of Chemistry and Biochemistry at South- using biology: from extracting enhanced she left Australia (and any semblance of ern Illinois University. He received a BS and modified magnetosomes from blue skies) for postdoctoral appointments in chemistry from Texas A&M University magnetic bacteria, to utilising the bacteria’s at Imperial College London and Cornell (2000) and a PhD in chemistry from the biomineralisation proteins to control University. Nicole then moved to the Uni- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign particle production in vitro, from bio- versity of Texas at Austin, where she lead a under the guidance of Professor Jeffrey S. mimetic artificial magnetosomes, to the double life as a member of a local improv Moore (2005). He was an Alexander von bioinspired surface fabrication that is theatre and as an Assistant Professor in the Humboldt postdoctoral fellow at the Max the subject of this paper. When she was Materials Science and Engineering Pro- Planck Institute for Polymer Research with a new academic she was told ‘‘you are gram. Nicole returned to Cornell as faculty Professor Klaus Mu¨llen and a postdoctoral only as good as the people that work for in July 2015. researcher at Columbia University with you’’ and this is valuable advice. She is

3886 | J. Mater. Chem. C, 2016, 4, 3885--3889 This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2016 View Article Online

Journal of Materials Chemistry C Profile

passionate about developing her highly worked together with G. Soler Illia and skilled, diverse and international research O. Azzaroni on the pH-gating of ionic group, which she is very proud of (two of permselectivity in porous materials. This which (Scott and Andrea) are co-authors of resulted in her strong interest in poly- the paper). Sarah is a mother of two young merization reactions at the nanoscopic children (2 and 5) and as a family enjoys scale and the control of pore accessibility. walking their dog in the peak district com- In October 2011, Dr Andrieu-Brunsen bined with a lovely meal in a cosy pub. accepted the post of Associate Professor of Chemistry at TU Darmstadt, where she heads the ‘‘Smart Membranes’’ research group. In 2015 she was awarded the Exploration Grant of the Boehringer Ingelheim Stiftung and in 2016 the ADUC Preis for her research towards polymeriza- tion control in porous films. Joe Gilroy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Western University (aka The University of Western Ontario). Since his appointment in 2012, he and his group have been engaged in a diverse range of projects within the realm of syntheticmaterials chemistry Toby L. Nelson is an Assistant Professor in towards the realization and application the Department of Chemistry at Oklahoma of molecular imaging agents, energy- State University. He received his BS degree purpose polymers, and metal-rich nano- in Chemistry from Francis Marion Univer- materials. He was the recipient of the sity. He obtained his PhD in Organic Chem- Thieme Chemistry Journal Award and istry from the University of South Carolina Western’s Petro-Canada Young Innovator in 2007. Then he moved to Carnegie Mellon Award in 2014 and an Ontario Ministry of University as a UNCF-Merck Postdoctoral Efrain E. Rodriguez, originally from Research and Innovation Early Researcher Research Fellow under Prof. Richard D. West Texas, received his BS from the Award in 2015. McCullough. His research interests focus Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the design and synthesis of organic and PhD in Materials at the University of semiconductors, supramolecular materials, California Santa Barbara. Afterwards, he Published on 27 April 2016. Downloaded 06/05/2016 20:48:24. sustainable chemistry and development of received a National Research Council bioinspired materials for biological and Post-doctoral Fellowship at the NIST energy applications. Centre for Neutron Research. In 2012 he joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Maryland wherehebuiltanewsolid-statechemistry laboratory for the preparation of inorganic materials. The group works at the dynamic intersection of materials chemistry and condensed matter physics with particular interest in iron-based superconductors, James Rondinelli is an assistant professor magnetic materials, transition metal oxides, at Northwestern University in the Materials crystallography, and neutron scattering. Science and Engineering (MSE) Depart- ment. His interests are in electronic struc- ture theory and first-principles design of functional complex inorganic materials. In Annette Andrieu-Brunsen studied Chemis- 2016 he received a Sloan Research Fellow- try in Marburg (Germany) and completed ship in Physics and the Presidential Early her PhD from 2007 to 2010 at the Max Career Award for Scientists and Engineers Planck Institute for Polymer Research in (PECASE). Additional honours include an Mainz (Germany) in the group of W. Knoll. NSF-CAREER Award (2015), DARPA Young Subsequently, she continued her research Faculty Award (2012), Ross Coffin Purdy in Buenos Aires (Argentina), where she Award from the American Ceramic Society

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(2012), and an ARO Young Investigator Program (YIP) award (2012). Dr Rondinelli has (co)-authored more than 80 peer- reviewed publications and holds 1 patent. He received a BS in MSE from North- western (2006) and a PhD in materials from the University of California, Santa Barbara (2010). From 2010–2011, he was the Joseph Katz Named Fellow in the X-ray Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory. Prior to joining Northwestern, he was an assistant professor at Drexel University (2011–2014).

Dr Diao is the Dow Chemical Company James F. Cahoon received his BS in Faculty Scholar and Assistant Professor at Chemistry and Philosophy from The the University of Illinois at Urbana- College of William and Mary in 2003 Champaign. She received her PhD degree and his PhD in Physical Chemistry from in Chemical Engineering from MIT in 2011. UC-Berkeley in 2008, where he worked in In her subsequent postdoctoral training at the field of ultrafast vibrational spectro- Stanford University, she pursued research scopy with Charles Harris. Beginning in in the thriving field of printed electronics. 2009, he worked as an I.C. postdoctoral Her work has been frequently featured in fellow with Charles Lieber at Harvard science journals and news media. Within University, and he began his indepen- the past 4 years, Dr Diao has published over dent career at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2011. 30 peer-reviewed publications with total His group combines synthetic control of Dang Yuan Lei received his BSc and MPhil citations of 41000. semiconductor nanomaterials with detailed degrees, both in Physics, from Northwest physical characterization and modelling to University and the Chinese University of rationally design new functional materials. Hong Kong in 2005 and 2007, respectively. He has won awards including the NSF He obtained his PhD degree in Physics CAREER, Packard Fellowship for Science from Imperial College London in 2011 and Engineering, Alfred P. Sloan Research and his PhD thesis was awarded Imperial’s Fellowship and Cottrell Scholar Award. Published on 27 April 2016. Downloaded 06/05/2016 20:48:24. prestigious prize the ‘‘Anne Thorne PhD Thesis Prize’’. Since September 2012, he has been an assistant professor with the Department of Applied Physics at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His current research centres on nanophotonics and nanomaterials studies (including two-dimensional nanomaterials), with Chad Risko is an Assistant Professor of particular interest in surface plasmon Chemistry at the University of Kentucky. A enhanced light–matter interaction at the theoretical materials chemist by training, nanoscale, and their applications in he received his PhD from the Georgia energy harvesting, optoelectronic devices, Institute of Technology and completed biochemical sensing and biomedical postdoctoral research at Northwestern imaging. Since 2007, his research has University.Withaneyetowardsdeveloping Jonathan Rivnay earned his BSc from produced 65 scientific publications, with novel materials design paradigms, Chad’s Cornell University and his MSc and PhD a total number of 1470 citations and an research uncovers relationships among from Stanford University (Materials H-index of 22 (by Google Scholar as of chemical structure, molecular packing, Science and Engineering) where he March 2016). interfacial chemical processes, and the studied the effect of defects and static resulting electronic, redox, and optical disorder on charge transport in molecular properties of materials of interest for and polymeric electronic materials. He energy conversion and storage applica- then moved to the Department of Bio- tions and new generations of electronic electronics in the Centre Microelectronique and optoelectronic devices. de Provence (Gardanne, France) as a Marie

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Journal of Materials Chemistry C Profile

Curie fellow where he investigated mixed research is focused on the development of diffraction techniques to achieve a mole- ionic-electronic conduction and developed biologically inspired materials for camou- cular level understanding of the physical conducting polymer-based electrochemical flage and bioelectronics applications. Dr processes that occur in stimuli-responsive transistor arrays and drug delivery devices Gorodetsky has received several awards for nanoporous materials with the ultimate goal for in vitro diagnostics and in vivo neural his research, including the Samueli Faculty of being able to create ‘by design’ crystalline recording/stimulation. Since then (2015), Career Development Fellowship, the Air materials with tailor-made properties. Jonathan joined the Palo Alto Research Force Young Investigator Award, and the Center (PARC; Palo Alto, CA), as a member Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists of the research staff. His current research and Engineers. focuses on designing materials that can efficiently interface with the human body, and on understanding how devices based on those materials can record small bio- logical signals.

Rachel Evans is an Assistant Professor (since 2011) in the School of Chemistry at , Ireland. A native of Wales, Jason Benedict started his career with a she obtained her MChem (2002) and PhD Bachelor of Science degree from Arizona (2007) degrees from Swansea University State University in 2001 working in the field under the supervision of Dr Peter Douglas of fundamental reactions in inorganic chem- and was awarded the RSC Ronald Belcher istry. He then earned a PhD in 2007 from the Award for her PhD studies. She subse- Dr Alon Gorodetsky is an Assistant Professor University of Washington working under quently moved to Portugal as an FCT post- in the Department of Chemical Engineering Professor Bart Kahr investigating the optical doctoral fellow between the Universities of and Materials Science at the University of properties of oriented chromophores Coimbra and Aveiro. Rachel is the co-editor California, Irvine, with a joint appoint- within technologically important materials. of the book Applied Photochemistry and her ment in the Department of Chemistry. In 2008, Jason began his post-doctoral current research focuses on the use of inter- Dr Gorodetsky obtained dual BS degrees in studies at the University at Buffalo under facial engineering to design photoactive Published on 27 April 2016. Downloaded 06/05/2016 20:48:24. Engineering Physics and Materials Science the guidance of Professor Philip Coppens hybrid materials for application in optical at Cornell University and a PhD in Chemis- that involved time-resolved X-ray diffraction sensors, solar energy conversion and light- try at the California Institute of Technology. and the synthesis of novel polyoxotitanate emitting displays. She was named Young He subsequently completed postdoctoral clusters for solar energy applications. Jason Leader of the Year at the 2014 Irish Lab work as a National Science Foundation began his independent career at the Univer- Awards and elected as a Fellow of Trinity American Competitiveness in Chemistry sity at Buffalo in 2011 where his research College in 2015. In her free time, you can Fellow at Columbia University. His current seeks to develop advanced in situ X-ray find Rachel chasing the perfect wave.

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