Ph.D. Institution: Florida State University (Adviser: Hoyong Chung)

E-mail: [email protected]

Research: Control of Tg and associated dynamics, and glass properties is a key goal in functional materials. While copolymerization and mixing have long been employed in tuning these properties, their usage has generally been prescribed and guided by classical Tg mixing rules that suggest a limitation to interpolating between the properties of existing polymers. Recent work probing sequence effects on Tg indicates the even more profound possibility of achieving large variations in Tg, transport, and mechanical properties at fixed composition and chemistry simply by varying sequences. Thus, my goal is to understand the impact of monomer sequence and dissimilar molecular interactions on copolymer dynamics and glass properties.