Professor Lisa M. Hall wins national AIChE award for research, service
The American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the global home of chemical engineers from more than 110 countries and the discipline's leading professional organization, has recognized Professor Lisa M. Hall with the AIChE Materials Engineering & Sciences Division (MESD) 2021 Owens Corning Early Career Award.
The MESD Owens Corning Early Career Award recognizes outstanding independent contributions to the scientific, technological, educational or service areas of materials science and engineering. In announcing the award, the committee cited Hall's research accomplishments and service involvement in AIChE and other organizations as being "truly impressive."
"I feel honored by the support of the community in selecting me, and even more so by the many years of ongoing support I’ve benefitted from by colleagues in my area, mentors, collaborators, and students," Hall said upon learning the news. "I also feel humbled when I look at the list of prior awardees, and I hope I can make contributions in future years that can approach what I see coming from that group recently."
Previous Corning Award recipients include Bryan Boudouris, Bradley Olsen, Christopher Jewell, Rodney Priestley, Jeffrey Rimer, Thomas Epps, Christopher J. Ellison, and other distinguished scientists.
As part of the award, Hall will deliver an invited talk in the MESD Plenary session, during which the award will be officially given. The award citation reads: "For molecular theory and simulations yielding fundamental insights into the structure and dynamics of ion-containing polymers and polymer nanocomposites."
Research Focus
Broadly speaking, Professor Hall's research focus is on the theory and simulation of polymeric materials. She applies statistical mechanical theory and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate structural, thermodynamic, and dynamic phenomena in soft materials. Of particular interest are polymeric systems containing ions or nanoparticles in which the interactions and structure on the monomer to polymer radius of gyration scales are of great importance in determining the overall macroscopic behavior of the material.
Dr. Hall is a leader in her field who has made unique and lasting contributions to polymer research that have fundamentally advanced the way scientists think about important classes of polymers. In particular, she advanced our understanding of the structures that are best for ion or penetrant diffusion in block copolymer (BCP) phases. Relatedly, she has shown how tapering the blocks in BCP alters the phase diagram, which can then be used to alter the dynamics in these systems.
Recently, she has analyzed the mechanical properties of both standard polymer nanocomposites and one component polymer-grafted nanoparticle systems.
The overall impact of Dr. Hall’s work is broad because the insights gained have yielded new directions for both theoretical and experimental research, advancing the field towards rational design of these polymeric systems to achieve desired materials properties.
About Lisa M. Hall
Hall joined the faculty of The Ohio State University in 2012 as the H.C. "Slip" Slider Professor in the William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, holding the honor until 2018. In recognition of her work in understanding polymer architecture-property relationships through coarse-grained models, Professor Hall won the prestigious National Science Foundation Early CAREER Award in 2015.
In addition to other awards and honors, she has held several Air Force Research Laboratory Summer Faculty Fellowships and won The Ohio State College of Engineering Lumley Research Award, as well as awards for mentoring and advising women in engineering. She is also the director of Ohio State's STEAM Factory, an organization that facilitates interdisciplinary collaboration between scientists, the arts, and community members.
Her work has received significant funding from the Department of Energy and her research has been published in such high-impact journals as the Journal of the American Chemical Society and Physical Review Letters.
