Chinedum Osuji

Chinedum Osuji (born December 15, 1976) is the Eduardo D. Glandt Presidential Professor and the departmental chair of chemical and biomolecular engineering (CBE) at University of Pennsylvania. He is also a former Taekwondo Olympian and represented Trinidad and Tobago. His laboratory works on polymers and soft materials for functional application including liquid filtration. He is the associate editor of the journal Macromolecules. He studied materials science and engineering, receiving his bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 1999. During his studies Cornell he completed a senior thesis on random copolymers for polymer interface reinforcement with Edward J. Kramer. At MIT he worked under the supervision of Edwin L. Thomas. His research thesis was on the structure and properties of liquid crystalline block copolymers.

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

In 2003, he received a silver medal at the Pan American Games qualifier. In 2021, he became the chair of the department of chemical and biomolecular engineering.

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. In particular, he has studied methods to induce long-range order in soft matter systems such as block copolymers and liquid crystals and self-assembly of nanomaterials.

He is the author of over 100 publications. Osuji is currently an associate editor of Macromolecules.

Honors and awards

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