Monica Olvera de la Cruz
| Monica Olvera de la Cruz | |
|---|---|
| Born | Mexico City |
| Fields | physics |
| Institutions | Northwestern University |
| Alma mater |
UNAM Trinity College, University of Cambridge |
| Doctoral advisor | Sir Sam Edwards |
| Known for | soft matter physics electrolytes |
| Notable awards |
David and Lucile Packard Foundation fellowship (1989) Presidential Young Investigator Award (1990) National Academy of Sciences Cozzarelli Prize (2007) National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship (2010) Miller Institute Visiting Professor (2015-16) American Physical Society Polymer Physics Prize (2017) |
|
Website http://aztec.tech.northwestern.edu |
|
Monica Olvera de la Cruz is a soft-matter theorist, the Lawyer Taylor Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University.
Olvera de la Cruz obtained her B.A. in Physics from the UNAM, Mexico, in 1981, and her Ph.D. in Physics from Cambridge University, UK, in 1985. Olvera de la Cruz is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the American Physical Society.
She directed the Northwestern Materials Research Center from 2006–2013, which she grew in research, funding level and education, and expanded it to impact society beyond science and engineering by facilitating development of visionary outreach programs in the arts such as The Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts (NU-ACCESS), which was established by Francesca Casadio and Katherine T. Faber. Olvera de la Cruz currently serves as the Co-Director of NU-ACCESS alongside Francesca Casadio. She is also the Director of the Center for Computation and Theory of Soft Materials (CCTSM), and Co-Director of the Center for Bio-Inspired Energy Science (CBES) at Northwestern University.
Olvera de la Cruz founded the alliance of the Northwestern MRSEC with the University of San Antonio PREM.
Olvera de la Cruz has developed novel methods to analyze complex systems, and in particular molecular electrolytes. She explained the limitations associated with separating long DNA chains via gel electrophoresis dynamics, which was of great importance to the Human Genome Project.
She has described the emergence of shape and patterns in membranes and in multicomponent complex mixtures. She and her students and postdocs discovered that electrostatics leads to spontaneous symmetry breaking in ionic membranes such as viral capsids (for which they were awarded the 2007 Cozarelli Prize), and in fibers.
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