Reika Katsumata
(勝又　麗香)

Bio:

Reika Katsumata is an assistant professor in the Polymer Science and Engineering Department at UMass Amherst, who received a B.E. in Organic and Polymeric Materials from the Tokyo Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Leading the Katsumata Research Group at the intersection of chemical engineering and materials science, she focuses on revealing material performance that is otherwise impossible by designing extremely confined soft/hard interfaces. Her three main thrusts involve leveraging rapid thermal annealing for functional porous materials and defect-healing/doping 2D materials, developing reprocessible crosslinked polymers through ultrasound-mediated bond-exchange reactions for sustainability, and laying the foundation by understanding polymer dynamics and wettability at interfaces.

 

Honors and Awards:

• ACS Polymer Au: 2023 Rising Stars in Polymers (2023)

• 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)