Charles Schroeder, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, has received a five-year National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, which will help Schroeder and his research team conduct new and cutting-edge molecular-level studies of branched polymer chains.
The CAREER grants are given to young faculty in a highly competitive annual program. The recipients are recognized for their outstanding research, excellent education, and the lifelong integration of education and research.
During the past few years, Schroeder has worked to address many of the steps in polymer processing such as design and synthesis of materials and detailed studies of the flow processing of polymers, all of which help his research group to attack problems in materials design at the molecular level.
These polymers are the basis for many technologies ranging from consumer plastics to electronics. Schroeder says it has been more than 50 years since the rapid growth of synthetic materials spurred the mass production of polymers on an industrial scale.
“Taken together, our research has the potential to enable the coupled synthesis and characterization of polymers that will ultimately enable the targeted molecular design of new, advanced materials with desired processing properties and function,” he says.
