معرفی
Anna C. Balazs is Distinguished Professor and John A. Swanson Chair of Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, with an adjunct appointment in Chemistry and visiting professorships at Scripps Research Institute, UT-Austin and Oxford University. In 2025 she receives the €10,000 Gutenberg Research Award from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) for her pioneering theoretical work on smart soft materials.
She earned an A.B. in Physics from Bryn Mawr College (1975) and a Ph.D. in Materials Science from MIT (1981), followed by post-doctoral research at Brandeis, MIT and UMass.
Research interests span theoretical and computational soft-matter physics, focusing on:
- Statistical-mechanical modelling of polymer blends and composites
- Self-oscillating and chemo-responsive hydrogels
- Active matter, enzyme-powered swimmers and self-propelling sheets
- Self-healing, shape-morphing and bio-inspired materials
- Computer simulation of colloidal and interfacial phenomena
Recent publications (2023-2025) demonstrate a clear trend toward integrating chemistry, fluid mechanics and elasticity to create life-like, autonomous soft machines. Key contributions include:
- Harnessing enzyme pumps to drive macroscopic sheet locomotion
- Designing chemically communicating micro-post arrays
- Creating dissipative materials with programmable, hierarchical 3-D architectures
Scientific awards include:
- Gutenberg Research Award 2025
- Polymer Physics Prize, American Physical Society
- SF Boys-A. Rahman Award, Royal Society of Chemistry
- Langmuir Lectureship Award, American Chemical Society
- Election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (2021)
She serves on the Advisory Board of the DOE-BES Materials Council and on editorial boards for Langmuir, Soft Matter and Polymer Reviews. Her group collaborates closely with experimental teams world-wide, including the DFG-NSF “Confine” partnership with JGU and the CoM2Life Cluster of Excellence initiative.
