Polymer Science and Engineering
Explore the frontiers of polymers and soft materials through research, scholarship, and community.
Academic Highlights: The department hosts one of the largest academic polymer and soft materials centers in the world from which more PhDs have graduated than any other U.S. polymer program—an average of 15 to 20 each year. Research projects are supported by DOE, FAA, NSF, NIH, EPA, DOD, and other federal agencies, as well as 40+ industrial sponsors. Leveraging more than $40M of instrumentation housed in staff-run shared instrument facilities, research groups conduct fundamental research, publish in prestigious journals, and leverage expertise to define the forefront of their discipline.
Research Areas: Topics include sustainability, bio-inspired materials, electronic polymers/devices, materials for next generation energy and storage, high-performance composites, nanostructured materials, soft materials physics/mechanics, synthetic polymer chemistry, advanced polymer-based delivery vehicles, biomedicine, and stimuli-responsive polymers.
Degrees: PhD
People:
- Tenure-track faculty: 17
- Research faculty: 2
- PhD level facility directors: 3
- Graduate students: 85
- Postdoctoral fellows: 14
Research Awards: $10.178M
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In the news
UMass Researchers Developing Efficient Energy Conversion Method That Can Aid in Clean Energy Production and Renewable Fuel Production
The creation of mesoporous single atom-cluster Fe–N/C electrocatalysts, has the potential to significantly impact both science and society.
PSE Researchers Find Exception to 200-year-old Scientific Law Governing Heat Transfer
Fourier’s Law governs how heat diffuses through solid materials.
PSE Team Develops Additive That Can ‘Upcycle’ a Wide Range of Plastics
Researchers are using polymer recycling to identify new, environmentally conscious chemistry and technologies for polymer reprocessing.
Contact
David A. Hoagland
Professor
David A. Hoagland is the department head and a professor in the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering.
