Previous Events
Visit with Dr. Anna Balasz
On Nov. 19 2019, McMaster GEICS met with Dr. Anna Balasz who is a Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and holds the John. A Swanson Endowed Chair in Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research involves developing theoretical and computational models to capture the behaviours of polymeric materials, nanocomposties and multi-component fluids. She has served on several editorial boards, including Langmuir, Soft Matter, and Polymer Reviews. Dr. Balazs has also received several awards, some including the Greater Pittsburgh Women Chemists Committee Award for Excellence in the Chemical Sciences (2014) and was the first woman to receive the American Physical Society Polymer Physics Prize (2016), to name a few.
After working as a postdoctoral researcher at Brandeis University (1981-1983), she became a Research Associate at the University of Massachusetts (1984-1986). She later moved to Pittsburgh and became an Assistant Professor (1987-1992), and later Associate Professor (1992-1999)
For more information about Dr. Balazs and her research, please visit her website:
Visit with Dr. Jillian Buriak
On Dec 10. 2018, McMaster GEICS met with Dr. Jillian Buriak who is a professor at the university of Alberta with a research focus on nanoscience and materials chemistry. She holds a Canada Research Chair in Nanomaterials as well as the Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS). Dr. Buriak received an A.B from Harvard University and her PhD from the Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France. After completing an NSERC appointed postdoc at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, she continued to her first faculty appointment at Purdue University and was promoted to associate professor with tenure. She later joined the University of Alberta, where she is currently a full professor.
In addition, Dr. Buriak was on the Board of Reviewing Editors at Science and later served as an Associate Editor at ACS Nano. Currently, she is the Editor-in-Chief at Chemistry of Materials.
For more information about Dr. Buriak and her research, please visit her group website:
Visit with Dr. Katherine Elvira
On Oct. 25 2018, McMaster GEICS met with Dr. Katherine Elvira who is an assistant professor at the University of Victoria with a research focus on microfluidics. Dr. Elvira holds a Canada Research Chair in New Materials and Techniques for Health Applications. She received her MSc and PhD in Chemistry at the Imperial College London, specializing in microfluidics. She traveled to Zurich, where she was a postdoctoral fellow, senior scientist, and lecturer. She is also the founder of the Society for Women in Natural Sciences (WiNS) which aims to provide a networking platform connecting women in the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences at ETH in Zurich both socially and scientifically.
For more information about Dr. Elvira and her research, please visit her group website:
Visit with Dr. Emily Pentzer
On Mar. 8 2018, McMaster GEICS met with Dr. Emily Pentzer who is an Assistant Professor at Case Western University with a research focus in carbon-based materials with novel properties for applications in electronic devices such as solar cells, and energy storage. She received her PhD at Northwestern University, specializing in organic chemistry. She then traveled to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she was a postdoctoral associate in the Polymer Science and Engineering Department. Dr. Pentzer is also a member and mentor of the Chemistry Women Mentorship Network (Chem WMN) whose goal is is to create a national network of women in chemistry to provide support, encouragement and mentorship for young women considering continuing their education or pursuing careers in academia.
For more information about Dr. Pentzer and her research, please visit her group website:
http://caslabs.case.edu/pentzer/
