Christine K. Luscombe

Early life and education Luscombe was born and raised in Kobe, Japan. She became interested in chemistry at high school, and grew up surrounded by electronic devices developed by Sony and Panasonic. She was an undergraduate student at the University of Cambridge, where she specialised in chemistry.

Research and career

After her PhD, Luscombe was awarded a junior research fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge. She simultaneously joined the group of Jean Fréchet at the University of California, Berkeley. She has particularly focused on the rational design of high mobility polymers. She has contributed to International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) initiatives on polymer terminology and polymer education. In an interview with Chemical & Engineering News, Luscombe says that she began to feel unwelcome in the United States when Donald Trump instigated Executive Order 13769, the so-called Muslim travel ban. She said that she chose to leave the United States due to the growing racism and mismanagement of the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Selected publications Her publications The future of organic photovoltaics Direct nanoimprinting of metal nanoparticles for nanoscale electronics fabrication Semiconducting polymers : controlled synthesis and microstructure