Kathleen Stebe, Penn Engineering’s deputy dean for research and Richer & Elizabeth Goodwin Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, was one of two recipients of the 2018 Langmuir Lectureship Award.

The award, presented by the American Chemical Society’s Division of Colloid & Surface Chemistry and its journal, Langmuir, recognizes individuals working in the interdisciplinary field of colloid and surface chemistry. Langmuir lecturers are recognized for being outstanding scientists who display remarkable creativity in using fundamental research in colloid and interface science to develop new materials and devices.

Dr. Stebe’s research focuses on directed assembly in soft matter, including particles interacting by capillarity on interfaces, and particle assembly in complex fluids, liquid crystals and lipid bilayers. Recently, Dr. Stebe published a study showing how a specialized liquid mixture known as a bicontinuous interfacially jammed emulsion gel, or bijel, can be used to make nanoparticle-studded filters that don’t get clogged with slimy build-up.

“Professor Stebe’s insights have produced new paradigms to understand, control and exploit fluid interfaces far from equilibrium, touching fields from materials assembly to microfluidics and biology. She conducts elegant experiments supported by analysis and simulations that clearly demonstrate new concepts,” noted Langmuir editor-in-chief Françoise Winnik.