Olvera de la Cruz to Receive 2017 APS Polymer Physics Prize

Northwestern Engineering’s Monica Olvera de la Cruz has been selected to receive the 2017 Polymer Physics Prize from the American Physical Society (APS).

Olvera de la Cruz was selected for her “outstanding contributions to the theoretical understanding of polymers and the effects of electrostatic interactions on their structure and properties.” She will officially accept the award at the APS March Meeting next year.

“I am honored to receive the 2017 APS Polymer Physics Prize,” said Olvera de la Cruz, the Lawyer Taylor Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering. “It is given to highly distinguished scientists, including three Nobel Prize winners — Pierre Gilles de Gennes, Peter J.W. Debye, and Paul Flory — and my PhD adviser Sir Sam Edwards.”

Olvera de la Cruz’s research focuses on the development of models to describe the self-assembly of heterogeneous molecules, including amphiphiles, copolymers, and synthetic and biological polyelectrolytes. She also studies the segregation and interface adsorption in multicomponent complex fluids. Her group’s work has resulted in a revised model of ionic-driven assembly, and its investigations into soft and condensed matter physics have advanced scientific knowledge and opened new research fields of technological importance.

“Polymers have fascinating physical properties,” Olvera de la Cruz said. “They have attracted studies by scientists and mathematicians for decades, given that they are one-dimensional molecules with nanoscale dimensions that are capable of taking multiple conformations.”

A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Olvera de la Cruz has received several other honors and awards, including the Engineering and Applied Sciences Cozzarelli Prize from the National Academies, a National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship, an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award and the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering. She is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Physical Society.