Thuc-Quyen Nguyen

Thuc-Quyen Nguyen is Director and Professor at the Center for Polymers and Organic Solids (CPOS), and a professor of the Chemistry & Biochemistry department at the University of California Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on organic electronic devices, using optical, electrical, and structural techniques to understand materials and devices such as photovoltaics, LEDs, photodiodes, and field-effect transistors.

Early life and education Professor Nguyen was born in Ban Mê Thuột Vietnam. She was curious from an early age, always trying to understand how things work. Her mother was a math teacher so she was inspired from an early age to become a teacher. There are four generations of teachers in her family, and as a young child, she went along to her mother's classes as there was no daycare to attend. She also began working in a plant physiology lab, beginning by washing glassware. She asked for a research internship in the same lab during the summer but the lab manager turned her down. She also asked several labs at UCLA but they also turned her down. One professor said "research is not for everyone" and she should focus on learning English.

Research and career Professor Nguyen completed her masters in 1998, and PhD in 2001, both from UCLA. In her PhD, she processed and studied conducting polymers using ultrafast spectroscopy under the supervision of Professor Benjamin Schwartz.

After her PhD, Professor Nguyen worked as a research associate at Columbia University, with Professor Louis Brus. In 2004, Nguyen joined UCSB Chemistry and Biochemistry department as an assistant professor, and received appointment to full professor in 2011. 2007 – Harold Plous Award. 2008 – Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. 2009 – Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow. 2010 – Alexander von Humboldt Senior Research Award. 2015 – Alexander von Humboldt Research Award for Senior Scientists 2015-2019 – World's most Influential Scientific Minds 2016 – Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry 2019 – Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2019 – Beaufort Visiting Scholar, St John’s College, Cambridge University 2019 – Hall of Fame, Advanced Materials 2020 – UCSB Outstanding Graduate Student Mentor Award 2023 – Wilhelm Exner Medal 2023 – Elected to the US National Academy of Engineering 2023 – De Gennes Prize for Materials Chemistry (Royal Society of Chemistry) 2023 – Fellow of the US National Academy of Inventors