Dinesh O. Shah Annual Lecture in Surface Science: Electrostatic Self-Assembly of Charged Macrocolecules: New P

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MATTHEW TIRRELL, PH.D.
Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering
University of Chicago
Center for Molecular Engineering and Materials Science Division
Argonne National Laboratory

Title: Electrostatic Self-Assembly of Charged Macromolecules: New Physics and New Applications

Abstract:
Nature exploits all available covalent and non-covalent interactions for unparalleled spatiotemporal control over hierarchical length scales of macromolecular and supramolecular structure. The complex interplay of electrostatic and other non-covalent interactions of charged macromolecules still poses many open questions that will require broad collaboration among the life and physical sciences, as well as input from the engineering disciplines to drive toward new solid-state structures and useful materials. Scientific questions related to the physics of electrostatic self-assembly and to its role in biology will be discussed. Recent advances in understanding and biomedical applications of polyelectrolyte complex micelles will be presented.

Biography: Matthew Tirrell is the founding dean of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago, where he has been since 2011, with a joint appointment as a senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. Tirrell received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Northwestern University in 1973 and a Ph.D. in 1977 in Polymer Science from the University of Massachusetts. Previous positions have been: professor (1977-1999) and head (1994-1999) of chemical engineering and materials science at Minnesota, chair of bioengineering at Berkeley (2009-2011), dean of engineering at UC Santa Barbara (1999-2009), and deputy laboratory director for science at Argonne (2015-2018). He has co-authored about 400 papers. one book and six U.S. patents and has supervised about 100 Ph.D. students and 50 postdocs in areas of polymer science, surface and interfacial phenomena, self-assembly and nanomedicine. Professor Tirrell is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the Indian National Academy of Engineering and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society. He is advisor to several companies, both multi-national and start-up, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation (grants to university faculty in the chemical sciences) and Wyatt Technology, Inc (a scientific instrument company).