Steve Granick

Steve Granick is an American scientist and educator. In 2023 he joined the University of Massachusetts-Amherst as the Robert Barrett Endowed Chair of Polymer Science and Engineering, with joint appointment in the Chemistry, Physics, and Chemical Engineering Departments after serving as director of the Institute for Basic Science Center for Soft and Living Matter, an interdisciplinary blue-sky research center in Ulsan, South Korea that pursues basic science research. Until 2015 he was professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Education Granick obtained his B.A. in sociology from Princeton University in 1978 by correspondence and after initially dropping out during his Junior year. He earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin in 1982 with John D. Ferry. In 2014, after thirty years at the University of Illinois, he moved to South Korea to join the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), founding the Center for Soft and Living Matter

His research interests range from the study of active matter to the chemistry and physics of visualized macromolecules, vesicles, and supracolloidal materials. The early work in Granick's career focused on confined liquids. Granick was a pioneer in the field of nanorheology and molecular tribology. Other early work concerned molecular mobility at polymer surfaces. This progressed to later studies showing how biological membranes interact with their environments. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He is the recipient of numerous international awards, including the APS (American Physical Society) national Prize for Polymer Physics, the ACS (American Chemical Society) national Prize for Surface and Colloid Science, and the Paris-Sciences Medal.