Author Archive

Active and Adaptive Materials

This  two-day symposium will focus on active and adaptive nanomaterials on October 22nd and 23rd, 2015 at CUNY’s Advanced Science Research Center. In addition to presentations from Internationally-recognized leaders in nano-molecular chemistry, there will be contributed talks, tours of the facility and a poster session in the ground floor lobby.

Confirmed Speakers:

Samuel I. Stupp – Northwestern University
Joanna Aizenberg – Harvard University
Lee Cronin – University of Glasgow
Jan van Esch – Delft University of Technology
David G. Lynn – Emory University
Elisa Riedo – CUNY Advanced Science Research Center & The City College of New York
Nathan Gianneschi – UC San Diego
Adam Braunschweig – University of Miami

For more details and to register please visit nanoscienceny.com or click here
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Our new Editorial Board Member Anna Balazs

Materials Horizons is delighted to welcome Anna Balazs as our new Editorial Board Member.

Anna is the Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and the Robert von der Luft Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. She received her B.A. in physics at Bryn Mawr College and her Ph.D. in Materials Science at 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 in 1987. Her research involves developing theoretical and computational models to capture the behavior of polymeric materials, nanocomposites and multi-component fluids in confined geometries. Balazs served as the Chair of the Division of Polymer Physics of the APS (2000-2001), Co-Chair of the Spring MRS meeting (2000) and served on the APS Public Policy Committee. In addition, she is a Fellow of the APS.

Before joining Materials Horizons, Anna was a member of the Advisory Board for Soft Matter.

Her recent papers include:

Self-assembly of microcapsules regulated via the repressilator signaling network
Henry Shum, Victor V. Yashin and Anna C. Balazs
Soft Matter, 2015, 11, 3542-3549

Forming self-rotating pinwheels from assemblies of oscillating polymer gels
Debabrata Deb, Olga Kuksenok, Pratyush Dayal and Anna C. Balazs
Mater. Horiz, 2014, 1, 125-132

Chemo-responsive, self-oscillating gels that undergo biomimetic communication
Olga Kuksenok, Pratyush Dayal, Amitabh Bhattacharya, Victor V. Yashin, Debabrata Deb, Irene C. Chen, Krystyn J. Van Vliet and Anna C. Balazs
Chem. Soc. Rev., 2013, 42, 7257-7277

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Congratulations Professor Marder

On behalf of the Materials Horizons Editorial Office I would like to congratulate Professor Seth Marder, Chair of Materials Horizons, on his receipt of the MRS Mid-Career Researcher Award.

The Mid-Career Researcher Award is awarded for exceptional achievements and notable leadership in the materials field.  Seth Marder was awarded this honour for:

“For establishing fundamental relationships between the chemical structure of organic molecules and their optical and electronic properties, thereby profoundly impacting how the scientific community designs optimized molecular structures for use in nonlinear optical applications”


Seth Marder is Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology with over 400 peer reviewed publications, the recipient of the ACS Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award and is a fellow of multiple scientific communities, including the Royal Society of Chemistry.

More information about this award can be found here.

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Issue 4 of Materials Horizons is now online!

We are delighted to announce that the fourth issue of Materials Horizons has been published online! Showcasing some of the most exciting research across the breadth of the materials field, issue 4 includes articles such as:

Find the full issue here. We hope you enjoy reading it!

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Congratulations Seth & Zhenan!

Professor Seth Marder, Chair of the Materials Horizons Editorial Board, has been internationally recognised by the Materials Research Society as an outstanding member with sustained and distinguished contributions to the field of materials science.  They have recognised his work by honouring him as a Fellow of the Materials Research Society.   Established in 2008, MRS Fellows are expected to demonstrate a dedication to the advancement of materials research and is a lifetime appointment.

Professor Marder (Georgia Institute of Technology) was selected “For seminal contributions to fundamental understanding of the relationships between the chemical structure of organic molecules and their electronic and optical, including nonlinear optical, properties.”  He is currently working on research into organic materials, optical materials, electronics materials and surface modification.

The Materials Horizons Editorial Office would like to extend our personal congratulations to Professor Marder on this outstanding honour and take the opportunity to thank him for the work he does as the Chair of the Materials Horizons Editorial Board.

For more information on Professor Marder, please visit his home page.

We would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Professor Zhenan Bao, Chemical Science Associate Editor and Materials Horizons Advisory Board member, who has also been honoured as a MRS Fellow this year.  They join the long list of people honoured by the Materials Research Society for their work in materials science.

Congratulations Seth & Zhenan!

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Mat4Energy

This workshop aims at giving an up-to-date description and review of the different materials and technologies currently being implemented for various energy applications, with a special focus on renewables. It will be organized in three main blocks: materials for energy conversion, materials for energy storage, materials for an efficient use of energy.  The 5 Plenary sessions will cover the fundamentals of each thematic axis.  Related topics such as modeling and characterization will be tackled both through the plenary talks and the lectures.

In addition, the symposium will also provide an overview of the most promising materials being investigated at present.

All participants are invited to present their work in a poster session. The best posters of the conference, regardless of the field, will be awarded by APL Materials, the Royal Society of Chemistry and their new journal Materials Horizons http://bit.ly/1noj1K8

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Issue 3 of Materials Horizons is now online!

We are delighted to announce that the third issue of Materials Horizons has been published online! Showcasing some of the most exciting research across the breadth of the materials field, issue 3 includes articles such as:

Find the full issue here. We hope you enjoy reading it!

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Issue 2 of Materials Horizons is now online!

We are delighted to announce that the second issue of Materials Horizons has been published online! Showcasing some of the most exciting research across the breadth of the materials field, issue 2 includes articles such as:

Find the full issue here. We hope you enjoy reading it!

Follow the latest journal news on Twitter @MaterHoriz or go to our Facebook page.

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Introducing Materials Horizons Scientific Editor Thuc Quyen Nguyen

Thuc-Quyen Nguyen is a professor in the Center for Polymers and Organic Solids and Chemistry & Biochemistry Department at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). She received her Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2001 under the supervision of Professor Benjamin Schwartz. Her thesis focused on photophysics of conducting polymers using ultrafast spectroscopy.

From 2001 to 2004, she was a research associate in the Department of Chemistry and the Nanocenter at Columbia University working with Professors Louis Brus and Colin Nuckolls on molecular self-assembly, nanoscale characterization, and molecular electronics. She also spent time at IBM Research Center at T. J. Watson working with Richard Martel and Phaedon Avouris. In 2004, she started an assistant professorship at UCSB and was promoted to full professor in 2011.

Her current research interests are structure-function-property relationships in organic semiconductors, electronic properties of conjugated polyelectrolytes, interfaces in optoelectronic devices, charge transport in organic semiconductors and across membranes, device physics, and nanoscale characterization of organic solar cells. Her group has published over 120 peer reviewed papers. Recognition for her research includes the 2005 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, the 2006 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the 2007 Harold Plous Award (one of the UCSB’s two most prestigious faculty honors), the 2008 Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award, the 2009 Alfred Sloan Research Fellows, and the 2010 National Science Foundation American Competitiveness and Innovation Fellows.

Her recent papers include:

A structure–property–performance investigation of perylenediimides as electron accepting materials in organic solar cells
Michele Guide, Sara Pla, Alexander Sharenko, Peter Zalar, Fernando Fernández-Lázaro, Ángela Sastre-Santos and Thuc-Quyen Nguyen
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys, 2013, 15, 18894-18899

Towards environmentally friendly processing of molecular semiconductors
Zachary B. Henson, Peter Zalar, Xiaofen Chen, Gregory C. Welch, Thuc-Quyen Nguyen and Guillermo C. Bazan
J. Mater. Chem. A, 2013, 1, 11117-11120

Regioregular pyridyl[2,1,3]thiadiazole-co-indacenodithiophene conjugated polymers
Wen Wen, Lei Ying, Ben B. Y. Hsu, Yuan Zhang, Thuc-quyen Nguyen and Guillermo C. Bazan
Chem. Commun., 2013, 49, 7192-7194

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Professor Rao – Bharat Ratna 2014

Professor C. N. R. Rao, one of India’s highly regarded scientists, has been conferred the honour of the Bharat Ratna for 2014.  This is India’s highest civilian award and is seldom awarded.  Professor Rao is the third scientist and first chemist ever to receive the honour.

At an age when other people have relaxed into retirement, Professor Rao still spends several hours a day in his laboratory and has been in the running for a Nobel Prize for many years, showing his dedication and passion for his work.  He also co-authors books with his wife with the aim of making chemistry more accessible for children.  When asked in an interview with New Delhi Television what is required to succeed as a scientist in India, Professor Rao responded “stamina, tenacity, doggedness and perseverance.  Also a little intelligence is useful!”

The Materials Horizons Editorial Office would like to extend our personal congratulations to Professor Rao on his outstanding achievement and take the opportunity to thank him for the work he does as an Editorial Board member for the journal.

For more information on Professor Rao, please read his author profile here.

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