2020 Awardee
Sujit S. Datta
Princeton University
Sujit Datta is an Assistant Professor at Princeton University. He earned a BA in Mathematics and Physics and an MS in Physics in 2008 from the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his PhD in Physics in 2013 from Harvard, where he studied fluid dynamics and mechanical instabilities in porous materials with David Weitz. His postdoctoral training was in Chemical Engineering at Caltech, where he studied the biophysics of the gut with Rustem Ismagilov. He joined the department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Princeton in 2017. He is also associated faculty at the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, and High Meadows Environmental Institute.
Datta’s research focuses on the dynamics of soft and living materials in complex environments, motivated by their applications in geophysical processes such as water remediation, carbon sequestration, clean oil/gas recovery, and agriculture, biophysical processes in the body, and biotechnological processes such as targeted drug delivery. The Datta lab performs this research by integrating microscopy and image analysis, microfluidics and rheology, soft materials synthesis and characterization, and biophysical tools. They also complement their experiments with theoretical and computational modeling, applying ideas from fluid dynamics, polymer physics, soft mechanics, equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, and network theory.
Datta is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, AIChE 35 Under 35 Award, APS Andreas Acrivos Award in Fluid Dynamics, APS LeRoy Apker Award, ACS Petroleum Research Fund New Investigator Award, and multiple Commendations for Outstanding Teaching.
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2021 Awardee
Lilian Hsiao
NC State University
Lilian Hsiao is an assistant professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at North Carolina State University and the founding scientist of X-MED Hydrogels. She received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2008 and her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2014. She received the Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship for her work with Michael Solomon on the microstructure of colloidal suspensions in flowing systems. Her postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Patrick Doyle was on colloidal nanoemulsions and 3D printing. She started her tenure-track position at NC State in 2016.
The Hsiao group is interested in fundamental soft matter mechanics. Active research areas include the rheology of anisotropic particulates, the self-assembly of functional colloids, and the friction of soft materials. Experimental and modeling techniques are used to study systems such as hydrogels, colloids, and polymers. High resolution confocal triborheometry is used to understand their micromechanics, which are then leveraged to engineer new physical phenomena. The studies are motivated by broader applications in industrial formulations, biomechanics, and haptic technology. Her group’s flagship work has been published in journals including Nature Materials, Nature Communications, Physical Review Letters, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Hsiao has been recognized for advancing the fields of suspension rheology and soft haptic materials, most recently through the NSF CAREER Award and the AAAS Mason Award. She is actively involved in leadership roles in technical communities, including planning the ACS CSSS meeting in 2023, creating Wikipedia profiles for underrepresented soft matter scholars, and organizing citizen science activities on social media sites such as Reddit.
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