Eugenia Kumacheva | |
|---|---|
 Eugenia Kumacheva at the Royal Society admissions day in London in 2016 | |
| Born | Odessa, Soviet Union |
| Nationality | Russian-Canadian |
| Alma mater | Technical University (B.S.), Technical University (M.Sc.), , Russian Academy of Science.(Ph.D) |
| Awards | L’Oreal –UNECO Women in Science Prize (2008-2009), Fellow to the Royal Society of Canada (2007), Fellow of the Royal Society (2016) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Chemistry |
| Institutions | University of Toronto |
| Website | www |
Eugenia Kumacheva is a chemistry faculty at the University of Toronto and a Canada Research Chair in Advanced Functional Materials her research interests span across the fields of fundamental and applied polymers science , nanotechnology, microfluidics, and interface chemistry[2]. In 2011, she published a book titled "Microfluidic Reactors for Polymer Particles "[3] co-authored with Piotr Garstecki. She is currently a tier 1 Canadian researcher in Advanced Polymer Materials and also a Fellow of Royal Society of Canada [3]
Biography and Career
editEugenia Kumacheva was born in Odessa, Soviet Union. After earning her undergraduate degree (cum laude) from Technical University in St. Petersburg[4], Kumacheva worked in industry for several years before moving to Moscow where she obtained her Ph.D. degree at the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1981[4]. Her research focused on the physical chemistry of polymers. Kumacheva then worked as a research assistant at the Moscow State University [5]before beginning her post-doctorate fellowship supported by Minerva Foundation with Professor Jacob Klein at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel[5]. She then joined the research lab of Mitchel Winnick at the University of Toronto in Canada to study multicomponent polymer systems. In 1996, Kumacheva was hired as an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Chemistry Department, and in 2005, she was promoted to a Full Professor[5]. During her career, Kumacheva has delivered numerous public lectures, co-authored a book, and has been recognized by a number of national and international awards. In 2008, she was the first Canadian recipient of the L'Oréal-UNESCO "Women in Science" Prize.[6] Her book titled “Microfluid reactor for Polymer Particles[4]” was published in 2011, and describes about the use of liquid flow through microscopic channels as a method of polymerization.[3]
Research
edit
Kumacheva’s work focuses on polymer science, nanoscience, microfluidics, and interface chemistry. She has a strong effort in biomimetic research focused biological tissues, fluids, and environments with polymers and nanomaterials. Kumacheva has been involved with important developments in modeling the biological conditions of myocardial infarctions, strokes, pulmonary embolism, and various other blood related disorders or health conditions using polymers and nano-materials. Some of this work is related to mimicking blood vessels in order to gain a greater understanding of the chemistry and physics involved in blood clots. Kumacheva has been involved in research exploring the potential of microbubbles, a gas enclosed by a natural or synthetic polymer for both diagnostic and therapeutic applications such as targeted drug delivery and molecular imaging. An additional medical application of Kumacheva’s work is the creation of hydrogels [8]and various other chemical environments to either support the life of a stem cell, affect necrotic heart tissue as well as deter the metastasis of cancer cells. Kumacheva has been involved in research involving cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and fluorescent latex nanoparticles (NPs[9]), as well as self-assembling nanocubes.
Much of her work relates to climate change and lowering CO2 levels. She has collaborated with Doug Stephan (University of Toronto), to investigate the behavior of frustrated Lewis pairs used to separate various elements of natural gas; namely, ethylene from a mixture of ethylene and methane. This work has great industrial importance due to the need for efficient and precise separation of petroleum compounds in various industries.
Study of Extraction and Recycling of Switchable Hydrophilicity Solvents in an Oscillatory Microfluidic Platform[11]
editIn another study involving frustrated Lewis pairs, Kumacheva used them to quantify the efficiency of binding CO2 emissions. Measuring the amount of CO2 bound by the Lewis pairs provided information on the amount that was captured into solution. Some of the reactions in CO2 uptake require solvents with different properties, but it is expensive to prepare multiple solvents. As a solution to this problem, Kumacheva has worked on solvents with adjustable properties such as hydrophilicity called switchable hydrophilicity solvents (SHS). For example, a sterically hindered, large, hydrophobic molecule (Dibutylethanol Amine – DBAE) being protonated to become hydrophilic as necessitated by the reaction process.
| Year | Award |
|---|---|
| 1992 | Minerva Foundation Fellowship (Germany) |
| 1994 | Imperial College Visiting Fellowship (UK) |
| 1999 | Premier Research Excellence Award (Canada) |
| 2000 | International Chorafas Foundation Award |
| 2002 | Recipient of Canada Research Chair in Advanced Polymer Materials/Tier 2 |
| 2003 | Schlumberger Scholarship (Oxford University, UK) |
| 2004 | Clara Benson Award (CIC Award) |
| 2005 | Macromolecular Science and Engineer Award, CIC |
| 2006 | Recipient of Canada Research Chair in Advanced Polymer Materials/ Tier 1 |
| 2007 | Elected as Fellow to the Royal Society of Canada (Canadian National Academy of Science).
The 2007 E. Gordon Young Lecturer of The Chemical Institute of Canada |
| 2008-2009 | L'Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Prize (Laureate for North America[6]) |
| 2009 | Japan-Canada WISET lectureship, Royal Society of Canada |
| 2010 | Killam Research Fellowship, Canada Council for the Arts |
| 2011 | Distinguished Lecturer, The University of Western Ontario, Canada.
Connaught Innovation Award, Connaught Foundation. |
| 2012 | Humboldt Research Award, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany).
Inventor of the Year, University of Toronto |
| 2013 | University Professor (distinction given to <2% of Faculty at the University of Toronto) |
| 2016 | Elected as Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) (British National Academy of Science) |
| 2017 | Canada Institute of Chemistry (CIC) Medal |
References
edit- ^ "Eugenia Kumacheva". royalsociety.org. Retrieved 2017-06-05.
- ^ Wong, Patrick. "Research". www.chem.utoronto.ca. Retrieved 2017-06-05.
- ^ a b Kumacheva, Eugenia; Garstecki, Piotr (2011). Microfluidic Reactors for Polymer Particles - Kumacheva - Wiley Online Library. doi:10.1002/9780470979228. ISBN 9780470057735.
- ^ a b "Professor Eugenia Kumacheva". University of Toronto.
- ^ a b c "Staff: Eugenia Kumacheva". University of Toronto.
- ^ a b "2009 Edition Of The L'Oréal-Unesco For Women In Science Awards - L'Oréal Group". www.loreal.com. Retrieved 2017-05-12.
- ^ Liu, Kun; Lukach, Ariella; Sugikawa, Kouta; Chung, Siyon; Vickery, Jemma; Therien-Aubin, Heloise; Yang, Bai; Rubinstein, Michael; Kumacheva, Eugenia (2014-03-03). "Copolymerization of Metal Nanoparticles: A Route to Colloidal Plasmonic Copolymers". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 53 (10): 2648–2653. doi:10.1002/anie.201309718. ISSN 1521-3773. PMC 4000723. PMID 24520012.
- ^ Wang, Yihe; Li, Yunfeng; Thérien-Aubin, Héloïse; Ma, Jennifer; Zandstra, Peter W.; Kumacheva, Eugenia (2016-01-01). "Two-dimensional arrays of cell-laden polymer hydrogel modules". Biomicrofluidics. 10 (1): 014110. doi:10.1063/1.4940430. PMC 4723409. PMID 26858822.
- ^ Querejeta-Fernández, Ana; Kopera, Bernd; Prado, Karen S.; Klinkova, Anna; Methot, Myriam; Chauve, Grégory; Bouchard, Jean; Helmy, Amr S.; Kumacheva, Eugenia (2015-10-27). "Circular Dichroism of Chiral Nematic Films of Cellulose Nanocrystals Loaded with Plasmonic Nanoparticles". ACS Nano. 9 (10): 10377–10385. doi:10.1021/acsnano.5b04552. ISSN 1936-0851. PMID 26336902.
- ^ Chi, Jay J.; Johnstone, Timothy C.; Voicu, Dan; Mehlmann, Paul; Dielmann, Fabian; Kumacheva, Eugenia; Stephan, Douglas W. (2017-03-28). "Quantifying the efficiency of CO2 capture by Lewis pairs". Chemical Science. 8 (4): 3270–3275. doi:10.1039/C6SC05607E. ISSN 2041-6539. PMC 5424443. PMID 28553530.
- ^ Lestari, Gabriella; Alizadehgiashi, Moien; Abolhasani, Milad; Kumacheva, Eugenia (2017-05-01). "Study of Extraction and Recycling of Switchable Hydrophilicity Solvents in an Oscillatory Microfluidic Platform". ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. 5 (5): 4304–4310. doi:10.1021/acssuschemeng.7b00339.