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08/19/2015

Lodge receives 2015 Herman F. Mark Polymer Chemistry Award

Regents Professor Timothy Lodge has received the 2015 Herman F. Mark Polymer Chemistry Award from the Polymer Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS). He is being honored for his outstanding research and leadership in polymer science. He received this award at the Boston ACS National Meeting.

The Herman F. Mark award recognizes outstanding research and leadership in Polymer Science and is sponsored by Elsevier. Named after Herman F. Mark (1895-1992), one of the fathers of polymer science, it is the highest honor given by ACS Division of Polymer Chemistry, awarded once every two years.

Lodge is considered to be one of the most productive, innovative, and influential polymer scientists in the world, focusing his research on the structure and dynamics of polymeric systems. He has published more than 300 papers and supervised more than 100 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.

Lodge’s reputation is based both on careful and meticulous experiments to elucidate the universal physical laws that govern the behavior of polymers, and on the development of conceptual models to understand these laws. His work is unusually broad in scope, and encompasses the behavior of polymers in solution (i.e., as drug delivery vehicles) and in the bulk state (i.e., as mechanically robust composites).

One focus of Lodge’s research has been block copolymer systems: polymers with two (or more) sub-chains that spontaneously self-assemble into fascinating nanostructures. In a program extending over the last 25 years, Lodge and his students have delineated the fascinating mechanisms by which individual polymer molecules diffuse around and within these nanostructures. In another area, Lodge has developed a systematic route to “structured micelles,” which are block copolymer nanostructures in which micellar cores are subdivided as in, for example, a double-yolked egg. Currently, Lodge is working with colleagues on research into how redox-active ion gels may one day enable low-cost, color-changing display devices and electronic displays made of plastic.

Lodge is a Regents Professor in the College of Science & Engineering's Department of Chemistry and the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. He is director of the university’s Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, which just received $17.8 million in renewed funding from the National Science Foundation. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the ACS journals Macromolecules and ACS Macro Letters.