Coleen Pugh, PhD

Chair and Professor of Polymer Science
The University of Akron
Polymer Science
170 University Ave.
Akron, OH
USA 44325-3909
Email: cpugh@uakron.edu

Biographical Sketch: Coleen Pugh is a Professor in the Department of Polymer Science at The University of Akron. She served as an Associate Editor for the ACS journal, Macromolecules, from 1999 till March 31, 2011. She also established a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) Site for Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering in 2004, and directed it through 2009. Prior to joining UAkron in 1998, she spent almost five years as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at The University of Michigan, after spending 11 months as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry (sabbatical replacement) at Carnegie Mellon University. Her undergraduate degrees are in Chemistry and Textile Science (Univ. of California, Davis); her graduate degrees are in Macromolecular Science from Case Western Reserve University with Virgil Percec; and my postdoctoral research was in Organometallic and Polymer Chemistry at MIT with Richard R. Schrock. I am a synthetic organic polymer chemist. Her current research projects include the synthesis and structural characterization of hyperbranched polyacrylates, including hyperbranched glycopolymers; synthesis of functionalized PLAs and PLGAs; development of all-organic amphiphilic nanoparticles; development of new low-temperature curing reactions; development of composites with fillers and matrices from renewable resources; and the synthesis and use of liquid crystalline materials with arene-perfluoroarene π-π stacking interactions. These projects are funded by government and industrial grants.

Papers:
22 Biocomposites Based on Soy 25 Surface Engineering Approach for Enhanced Filler Dispersion and Hysteresis Reduction in Silica/Carbon Black Rubber Compounds 43 Synthesis and Application of Polybutadiene-g-Polypentafluorostyrene in Rubber P-3 Synthesis and Properties of Physically Cross-Linked Hydrogel Obtained from Linear Polymer P-5 Novel Dual Phase Coupling Agent for Silica/Carbon Black Hybrid Filler Containing Rubber Compounds