Biography
Krzysztof (Kris) Matyjaszewski is an internationally recognized polymer chemist. He is perhaps best known for the discovery of atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), a novel method of polymer synthesis that has dramatically changed the way such molecules are made.
Matyjaszewski received his doctorate from the Center of Molecular and Macromolecular Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences in 1976 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Florida in 1977. From 1978 to 1984, he was a research associate of the Polish Academy of Sciences. From 1984 to 1985, Matyjaszewski held appointments at the University of Paris, first as a research associate and then as a visiting professor. In 1985, he joined Carnegie Mellon, where he founded and currently directs the Center for Macromolecular Engineering. This Center is funded both by an active consortium and government agencies, including the National Science Foundation. In 1998, Matyjaszewski was appointed the J.C. Warner Professor of Natural Sciences. In 2004 he was named a University Professor, the highest distinction faculty can achieve at Carnegie Mellon.
From 1994 to 1998, Matyjaszewski served as head of the Department of Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon and assisted in recruiting additional faculty with strengths in polymer chemistry. At the same time, he formed a research consortium with various industrial corporations to expand the understanding of controlled radical polymerization, including ATRP, and accelerate the transfer of this technology to different commercial applications. A second consortium, the CRP Consortium, formed under his leadership in 2001, continues and expands these efforts, training university and industrial scientists in procedures for responsive polymeric material development. Matyjaszewski is a co-inventor on 38 issued U.S. patented technologies, holds 118 international patents and has 31 active U.S. patent applications.
One of the leading educators in the field of polymer chemistry, Matyjaszewski has 14 current doctoral students and 5 postdoctoral fellows. He has mentored more than 200 undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students since joining Carnegie Mellon. He has authored 14 books, 73 book chapters and more than 680 peer-reviewed scientific papers. His work has been cited in the scientific literature more than 40,000 times, making him one of the most cited chemists in the world.
Matyjaszewski has received numerous awards for his work, including the 2011 Wolf Prize in Chemistry and the 2009 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award. He has been honored by the American Chemical Society (ACS) with its 2011 Applied Polymer Science Award, 2007 Hermann F. Mark Senior Scholar Award, 2004 Cooperative Research Award in Polymer Science & Engineering, 2002 Polymer Chemistry Award, and the 1995 Carl S. Marvel Creative Polymer Chemistry Award. He also received the 2005 UK Macro Medal for outstanding achievements in polymer science, 1995 Humboldt Award for Senior U.S. Scientists and a 1989 Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation. In 2006, he was elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, in 2010, a fellow in the ACS Polymer Division, and in 2001 he was elected an ACS Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering Fellow.
Matyjaszewski’s work has been recognized in his native country of Poland. In 2004, he received the Annual Prize of the Foundation of Polish Science, the most prestigious scientific award in Poland, referred to as the Polish Nobel Prize. In 2005 he became a foreign member of the Polish Academy of Science, and in 2007, he received an honorary degree from Polytechnic University of Lodz in Poland. He has also received honorary degrees from the University of Ghent, Belgium, Russian Academy of Sciences, University of Athens, Greece and Polytechnic Institute in Toulouse, France.
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