Charles E. Sing

Charles E. Sing is a Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He holds the James M. and Karen S. Morris Faculty Scholar Professorship and leads the Sing Research Group. His work focuses on polymer physics, statistical mechanics, and computational modeling to design bio-inspired soft materials.

Education: BSE/MS from Case Western Reserve University (2008), PhD from MIT (2012), and postdoctoral research at Northwestern University (2012-2014).

Research Interests: Charge-driven polymer assembly, out-of-equilibrium polymer dynamics, brush-like polymer assembly, and coacervates. Collaborations include Profs. Diao, Rogers, Guironnet, and Schweizer to explore structural coloration, phase separation, and polymer network dynamics. His models bridge molecular-level mechanisms and macroscopic material properties.

Awards: ACS PMSE Young Investigator (2020), AIChE 35 Under 35 (2020), NSF CAREER Award (2017), and the 2024 John H. Dillon Medal. Recognized for contributions to polymer physics and soft materials design.

Labs/Teams: Director of Graduate Studies (2023–present), leading efforts to enhance graduate student experiences. Active in interdisciplinary collaborations across chemical engineering, materials science, and biophysics.