Biosketch

Prof. LaShanda T. J. Korley is a Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Materials Science & Engineering and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware (UD). Previously, 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 Director of the recently awarded Energy Frontier Research Center – Center for Plastics Innovation (CPI) funded by the Department of Energy and also the Co-Director of the recently announced Materials Research Science and Center – UD Center for Hybrid, Active, and Responsive Materials (UD CHARM). She is also the Principal Investigator for the National Science Foundation Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE): Bio-inspired Materials and Systems and the Associate Director of the Center for Research in Soft matter & Polymers (CRiSP) at the University of Delaware.

Awards

• 2022 ACS Division of Polymer Materials Science & Engineering (PMSE) Fellow
• 2021 AIChE MAC Gerry Lessells Award
• 2020 AIMBE Fellow
• 2019 NOBCChE Lloyd N. Ferguson Young Scientist Award

Research Interests

Functional polymeric material design

• Bio-inspired systems
• Hierarchical peptide polymer hybrids
• Sustainable materials
• Polymer recycling and upcycling strategies
• New fiber and composite manufacturing strategies
• Responsive composites
• Interplay of covalent and non-covalent interactions

Representative Publications

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

Brannum, M.L.; Steele, A.B.; Venetos, M.C.; Korley, L.T.J.; Wnek, G.E.; White, T.J.; “Light Control with Liquid Crystalline Elastomers,” Advanced Optical Materials 2019, 7, 1801683-1801687; DOI: 1002/adom.201801683

Thompson, C.B.; Chatterjee, S.; Korley, L.T.J.*; Invited Article, Special Issue – Biomimetic Polymers, “Gradient Supramolecular Interactions and Tunable Mechanics in Polychaete Jaw Inspired Supramolecular Interpenetrating Networks,” European Polymer Journal 2019, 116, 201-209; DOI: 10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2019.04.015

Van de Voorde, K.; Pokorski, J. P.; and Korley, L.T.J.; “Exploring Morphological Effects on the Mechanics of Blended PLA/PCL Extruded Fibers Fabricated using Multilayer Coextrusion,” Macromolecules 2020; DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.0c00289

Jang, Daseul; Thompson, C.T.; Chatterjee, S.; Korley, L.T.J.; “Engineering bio-inspired peptide-polyurea hybrids with thermoresponsive shape memory behaviour,” Molecular Systems Design & Engineering 2021, 6, 1003-1015; DOI: 10.1039/D1ME00043H

Korley, L.T.J.; Epps, T.H., III; Helms, B.A.; Ryan, A.J.; “Polymer Upcycling – Adding Value and Tackling Circularity,” Science 2021, 373, 66–69; DOI: 10.1126/science.abg4503

Amitrano, A.; Mahajan, J.S.; Korley, L.T.J.; Epps, T.H., III; “Estrogenic activity of lignin-derivable alternatives to bisphenol A assessed via molecular docking simulations,” RSC Advances 2021, 11, 22149-22158; DOI: 10.1039/D1RA02170B

Redondo, A.; Mortensen, N.; Djeghdi, K.; Jang, D.; Ortuso, Roberto; Weder, C.; Korley, L.T.J.; Steiner, U.; Gunkel, I.; “Comparing percolation and alignment of cellulose nanocrystals for the reinforcement of polyurethane nanocomposites,” ACS Applied Materials and Interface 2022, 14, 5, 7270–7282; DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c21656

Hinton, Z.R.; Talley, M.R; Kots, P.A.; Le, A.V.; Zhang, T.; Mackay, M.E.; Kunjapur, A.M; Bai, P.; Vlachos, D.G.; Watson, M.P.; Berg, M.C.; Epps, T.H., III; Korley, L.T.J.; “Innovations Toward the Valorization of Waste Plastics,” Annual Review of Materials Research, 2022, 52, Volume 52, 249-280; DOI: 10.1146/annurev-matsci-081320-032344