Biography

She joined Northwestern University in 1986, where she is the Lawyer Taylor Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, Professor of Chemistry, and by courtesy, Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Chemical & Biological Engineering. She is the Director of the Center for Computation and Theory of Soft Materials. From 1995-97 she was a Staff Scientist in the Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique, Saclay, France, where she also held visiting scientist positions in 1993 and 2003. She has developed theoretical models to determine the thermodynamics, statistics, and dynamics of soft materials including multicomponent solutions of heterogeneous synthetic and biological molecules, and molecular electrolytes. She is a member of the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS). She received the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship, the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator award, the National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship, and the APS Polymer Physics prize. She has served in the Advisory Committees of the Department of Energy Basic Energy Science Program (2012-21) and the NSF Mathematical and Physical Science Directorate (2005-09), as well as in various committees of the National Research Council (NRC). She served as chair and vice-chair of the NRC Condensed Matter and Materials Research Committee. She serves in the scientific advisory committee of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, and ESPCI (École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la Ville de Paris). She is a member of the PNAS editorial board, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Gordon Research Conferences (2019-27).