The Royal Society of Chemistry (the United Kingdom’s professional body for Balazschemical scientists) named McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Anna Balazs, PhD, its 2015 S F Boys-A Rahman Award Winner.  Dr. Balazs was recognized for her development of new theoretical and computational approaches to enable understanding of polymeric materials.

The S F Boys – A Rahman Award is for outstanding innovative research in the area of computational chemistry, including both quantum chemistry and molecular simulations.  This award is run biennially with the award winner receiving £2000, a medal, and a certificate.  Dr. Balazs will also complete a UK lecture tour.

Dr. Balazs is the Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and the Robert von der Luft Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. She received her BA in physics from Bryn Mawr College and her PhD in materials science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After postdoctoral work in the Polymer Science Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, she joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research involves developing theoretical and computational models to capture the behavior of polymeric materials, nanocomposites, and multi-component fluids.

Dr. Balazs is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the Materials Research Society. She was a Visiting Fellow at Corpus Christi College, Oxford University, in 2000-2001 and 2007-2008. She has served on a number of editorial boards, including: Macromolecules, Langmuir, Accounts of Chemical Research, and Soft Matter. She was Chair of the American Physical Society Division of Polymer Physics in 1999-2000. She received a Special Creativity Award from the National Science Foundation. In 2003, she received the Maurice Huggins Memorial Award of the Gordon Research Conference for outstanding contributions to Polymer Science. Recently, she received the American Chemical Society Langmuir Lecture Award (2014) and the Mines Medal from the South Dakota School of Mines (2013).

Congratulations, Dr. Balazs!

Read more…

Royal Society of Chemistry: 2015 S F Boys-A Rahman Award Winner

University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering News

The Balazs Laboratory