Kenneth S. Schweizer

Kenneth S. Schweizer is the G. Ronald and Margaret H. Morris Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He holds additional appointments in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, the Materials Research Laboratory, and the Beckman Institute. His research focuses on statistical mechanics of soft materials, polymers, colloids, and complex fluids, with emphasis on structure, dynamics, and rheology. Schweizer has pioneered theories predicting properties of polymer nanocomposites, glass transitions, and gelation phenomena.

Education: B.S. summa cum laude in physics from Drexel University (1983), Ph.D. in physics from UIUC (1989). Postdoctoral work at AT&T Bell Labs followed by a 7-year tenure at Sandia National Laboratories before joining UIUC faculty in 1991.

Research interests include:

• Statistical mechanics of condensed phases
• Soft materials and complex fluids
• Self-assembly, phase transitions, and nonlinear rheology
• Colloidal suspensions and nanoparticle dynamics
• Thermodynamic and dynamic properties of polymeric systems

Recognitions include the American Physical Society’s John H. Dillon Medal (1991), Polymer Physics Prize (2008), and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2021). He led the NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center for Directed Assembly of Nanostructures, served as Chair of the Polymer Division in Materials Science & Engineering, and received UIUC’s highest teaching award for graduate education (2022).

Labs/Teams: Principal Investigator in the Materials Research Laboratory, leading interdisciplinary research in soft matter physics and materials science.