Reika Katsumata
(勝又　麗香)

Bio:

Reika Katsumata is an assistant professor in Polymer Science and Engineering Department at UMass Amherst. After obtaining her B.E. and M.E. degrees in Organic and Polymeric Materials at the Tokyo Institute of Technology under the guidance of Prof.s Toshiaki Ougizawa and Keiichi Kuboyama, Reika made a big move to the States, where she earned Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin at Prof. Christopher Ellison's research group. Before joining UMass, she completed her postdoctoral training in Prof. Rachel Segalman's laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The Katsumata Group specializes in designing highly confined soft/hard interfaces by understanding fundamental properties and employing adaptable chemistry with polymer-assisted rapid thermal annealing.

 

Honors and Awards:

• American Chemical Society, Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (ACS PMSE): PMSE Early Stage Investigator Award (2023)

• Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR): Young Investigator Research Program (YIP) (2023)

• Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST): PRESTO Award (2022)

• 3M: Non-Tenure Faculty Award (2021)

• National Science Foundation: Faculty Early Career Development Program (NSF CAREER) (2022)

• American Chemical Society, Petroleum Research Fund (ACS-PRF): Doctoral New Investigator (DNI) Grant (2019)

• UCSB, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry: Robert H. DeWolfe Teaching Fellowship in Organic Chemistry (2017)

• The 11th SPSJ International Polymer Conference: RSC Soft Matter Award (2016)

• AIChE Annual Meeting: Finalist in the Excellence in Graduate Polymer Research Award Session (2016)

• Takenaka Scholarship Foundation: Scholarship for Studying Abroad, full tuition and stipend (2012-2016)