Student Hosted Colloquia: Professor Julie Kornfield, California Institute of Technology
Credit: Charles Ng
About the Seminar
"Packed with Personality: the Path to Aqueous Megasupramolecules"
While polymer synthesis and characterization are central to the story I will tell, equal attention is given to the unique talents and aspirations of the graduate students who shaped the path of this research. A stubborn, somewhat angry young man who was determined to take megasupramolecules into water (whether I agreed or not) expanded the envelope of synthetically accessible polymers. His insights and creativity yielded polyacrylamides (PAM) with high fidelity a,w-end functionalization even at chain length up to approximately 1Mg/mol. By installing terpyridine end-groups, he enabled us to use metal-ligand association to assemble supramolecules the extend to multi-million molecular weights—megasupramolecules, capable of controlling aqueous sprays with relevance from agriculture to fighting the spread of airborne viruses. Two other students, one scholarly and one entrepreneurial, teamed up to build an instrument to characterize the effects of the new megasupramolecules on droplets, controlling break up in sprays and when impacting surfaces. Their measurements revealed the potential value of terpyridine-ended PAM (TPAM) and a possible limitation: premature degradation. An aeronautics graduate student joined the team, tackled questions of chemical (in)stability to balance engineering requirements for degradation in the environment with stability during storage. Then she began pulling on loose ends from the earlier students’ theses and discovered surprising routes to larger megasupramolecules than previously imagined. Coming together from around the globe and across the gender spectrum, each of these students made pivotal contributions, influencing me and each other.
About the Speaker
Professor Julia A. Kornfield is the Elizabeth W. Gilloon Professor of Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. Her group designs and synthesizes new molecules guided by understanding their physics. Polymers developed at Caltech are currently used to customize human vision by noninvasively optimizing a lens after it is implanted into a patient’s eye (FDA-approved 2017). Kornfield co-founded Fluid Efficiency, which uses “megasupramolecules" to improve hydrocarbon transport and safety. Thus, her work spans from fundamental research on the molecular basis of polymer structure and properties, to polymer technologies that improve sustainability, health and safety. Elected to the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Inventors, she has been recognized as an outstanding mentor by Caltech’s Graduate Students and received the Bingham Medal of the Society of Rheology, among other honors.