Sharon Glotzer

Sharon Glotzer is an American chemical engineer and computational physicist renowned for her pioneering work in self-assembly and nanoscience. She is the Anthony C. Lembke Department Chair of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan and holds professorships in Materials Science and Engineering and Physics. Her research, which bridges statistical mechanics, soft matter physics, and materials design, has fundamentally advanced the understanding of how entropy can drive the organization of anisotropic colloids and nanoparticles into complex structures.

Early life and education

Born in Philadelphia, Glotzer pursued her undergraduate studies in engineering at the University of Michigan, earning a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree. She then completed her doctoral work at the University of California, Los Angeles under the supervision of Ralph H. Colby, receiving a Ph.D. in 1993. Her thesis investigated spinodal decomposition in polymer blends, an early foray into the phase behavior of complex materials. Following her doctorate, she conducted postdoctoral research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the Center for Theoretical and Computational Materials Science.

Career and research

Glotzer began her independent career as a scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology before joining the faculty of the University of Michigan in 2001. Her research group employs large-scale molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo computer simulations to predict and design novel self-assembled materials. A landmark contribution is her demonstration that entropic forces alone can order anisotropic polyhedral particles into quasicrystals and plastic crystals, challenging the traditional view that enthalpy dominates self-assembly. This work on entropic self-assembly has profound implications for nanotechnology and the fabrication of photonic crystals. She also developed the concept of "digital alchemy," a computational inverse-design framework for discovering optimal colloidal building blocks to target desired supramolecular structures. Her leadership extends to directing the University of Michigan's Biointerfaces Institute and serving as a principal investigator for the Center for Complex Particle Systems.

Awards and honors

Glotzer's contributions have been recognized with numerous prestigious awards. She was elected a Member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2019 and a Member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2016. In 2016, she received the American Physical Society's Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics. Other notable honors include the Alpha Chi Sigma Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Charles M. A. Stine Award from the Materials Research Society, and the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award from the American Physical Society. She is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Selected publications

Glotzer has authored or co-authored over 300 scientific papers. Key publications include "Self-assembly of polyhedral colloidal building blocks" in *Nature*, "Entropy-driven formation of a quasicrystal" in *Science*, and "Digital alchemy for materials design: colloids and beyond" in *ACS Nano*. Her highly cited work on the self-assembly of DNA-functionalized particles and the phase diagrams of hard particle systems has appeared in journals such as *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences*, *Physical Review Letters*, and *Soft Matter*.

Personal life

Glotzer is married to Michael Solomon, a professor of Chemical Engineering and Macromolecular Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan. They have two children. She is an advocate for women in science and has been actively involved in mentorship and initiatives to increase diversity in STEM fields.

Category:American chemical engineers Category:University of Michigan faculty Category:Members of the National Academy of Sciences Category:Members of the National Academy of Engineering Category:1962 births Category:Living people