Chinedum Osuji

Chinedum Osuji was born in Trinidad and Tobago and lived there until he began his education in the United States.[4] He studied materials science and engineering, receiving his bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 1999.[5] During his studies Cornell he completed a senior thesis on random copolymers for polymer interface reinforcement with Edward J. Kramer.[5] In 2003, Osuji received his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).[6] At MIT he worked under the supervision of Edwin L. Thomas.[7] His research thesis was on the structure and properties of liquid crystalline block copolymers.[7]

After receiving his PhD, he worked at Surface Logix Inc., a start-up company, working on using soft lithography to fabricate cell-based assays, planar waveguides and other devices.[5][6] From 2005 to 2007, Osuji was a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University working with David A. Weitz on colloidal gels.[5]

In 2000, while at MIT, Chinedum Osuji co-founded the MIT sport taekwondo team.[8]

He represented Trinidad and Tobago at the World Taekwondo Championships in the 2001, 2003, and 2005 games.[9]

In 2003, he received a silver medal at the Pan American Games qualifier.[9]

In 2004, Chinedum qualified to compete in taekwondo men's 80 kg at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, but was defeated by Rashad Ahmadov of Azerbaijan in the preliminary round.[1]

He competed in the 2007 Pan American Games, receiving a bronze medal[9] and then announced his retirement from future international competitions.[4]

In 2007, after completing his post-doc at Harvard University, he joined the faculty of Yale University in the department of chemical and environmental engineering.[4] In 2017 he joined the department of chemical and biomolecular engineering of the University of Pennsylvania as the Eduardo D. Glandt Presidential Professor.[10] In 2021, he became the chair of the department of chemical and biomolecular engineering.[11]

Osuji research focuses on the study of the structure, dynamics, and self-assembly of soft matter for use in applications such as organic solar cells, nanofiltration and microfluidic bio-assays.[12] In particular, he has studied methods to induce long-range order in soft matter systems such as block copolymers and liquid crystals[13][14][15] and self-assembly of nanomaterials.[16]

He is the author of over 100 publications.[17] Osuji is currently an associate editor of Macromolecules.[3]

• 2008 National Science Foundation CAREER Award[18]
• 2010 Yale College Arthur Greer Memorial Prize[19]
• 2011 University of California, Santa Barbara Materials Research Lab Dow Distinguished Lectureship[20]
• 2012 3M Nontenured Faculty Award[21]
• 2012 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award[22]
• 2013 University of California, Santa Barbara Materials Department Lange Lectureship[23]
• 2015 National Academy of Engineering von Humboldt Frontiers of Engineering Speaker[24]
• 2015 American Physical Society John H. Dillon Medal[25]
• 2015 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Hendrick C. Van Ness Award[26]
• 2016 Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science Advancement of Basic and Applied Science Award[27]
• 2016 Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Graduate Mentor Award[28]
• 2018 University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Racheff Lecture[29]
• 2018 American Physical Society Fellow[30][31]
• 2019 Nano Research Young Investigator Award[32]
• 2021 Intel Outstanding Researcher Award[33]