Biosketch

LaShanda T.J. Korley joined the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering, and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware (UDel) in January 2018 as a Distinguished Associate Professor.  Prior to Prof. Korley’s appointment at UDel, she held the Climo Associate Professorship of Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, where she started her independent career in 2007. Taking inspiration from nature, her research program involves understanding the design rules employed by nature and applying these strategies to the development of mechanically-enhanced and tunable materials. Prof. Korley is the Principal Investigator of the recently awarded NSF PIRE: Bio-inspired Materials and Systems.

She received a B.S. in both Chemistry & Engineering from Clark Atlanta University as well as a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1999.  Dr. Korley completed her doctoral studies at MIT in Chemical Engineering and the Program in Polymer Science and Technology in 2005. LaShanda Korley was the recipient of the Provost’s Academic Diversity Postdoctoral Fellowship at Cornell in 2005, where she completed a two-year postdoctoral appointment in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

Awards

• Nominated, Young Talent Award (1 of 6 internationally) Polymers for Advanced Technologies, 2013
• Invited Participant Global Challenges Summit (US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), UK Royal Society of Engineering & Chinese Academy of Engineering), 2013
• Japanese/American Frontiers of Science Symposium – Kavli Fellow, 2012 – 2016
• NAE U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, 2012
• DuPont Young Professor Award, 2011
• CWRU Diekhoff Graduate Mentoring Award, 2011

Research Interests

Mechanically-enhanced, multifunctional materials inspired by nature

• Hierarchical peptide polymer hybrids
• New fiber manufacturing strategies for functional material development
• Responsive composites
• Interplay of covalent and non-covalent interactions

Representative Publications

Jordan, A.M., Korley, L.T.J. “Toward a Tunable Fibrous Scaffold: Structural Development during Uniaxial Drawing of Coextruded Poly(caprolactone) Fibers”, Macromolecules, 2015, 48(8), 2614–2627, DOI:10.1021/acs.macromol.5b00370

Jordan, A.M., Marotta, T., Korley, L.T.J. “Reducing Environmental Impact: Solvent and PEO Reclamation During Production of Melt-Extruded PCL Nanofibers”, ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, 2015, 3(11), 2994-3003, DOI:10.1021/acssuschemeng.5b0101

Matolyak, L.E.; Keum, J.K.; Korley, L.T.J. “Molecular design – network architecture and its impact on the organization and mechanics of peptide-polyurea hybrids”, Biomacromolecules 2016, 17(12), 3931–3939; DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.6b01309

Alexander, Symone L.M.; Korley, L.T.J. “Tunable hygromorphism: structural implications of low molecular weight gels and electrospun nanofibers in bilayer composites”. Soft Matter 2017, 13, 283-291, DOI:1 0.1039/C6SM00749J

Alexander, S.L.M; Matolyak, L.E.; Korley, L.T.J. “Intelligent nanofiber composites: Dynamic communication between materials and their environment”, Macromolecular Materials and Engineering (Invited Feature) 2017, 302, 1700133, DOI: 10.1002/mame.201700133

Jordan, A.M; Kim, S.-E.; Van de Voorde, K.M.; Porkoski, J.; Korley, L.T.J. “In Situ Fabrication of Fiber Reinforced Three-Dimensional Hydrogel Tissue Engineering Scaffolds”, ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng.2017, 3 (8), 1869–1879, DOI: 1021/acsbiomaterials.7b00229

Alexander, S.L.M; Korley, L.T.J. “Programming Shape and Tailoring Transport: Advancing Hygromorphic Bilayers with Aligned Nanofibers”, Soft Matter 2017,13, 5589 – 5596, DOI: 10.1039/C7SM00962C