MatSE welcomes Assistant Professor Nairiti Sinha
MatSE welcomed Nairiti Sinha as a new assistant professor to the department this fall.
“I am delighted to have Dr. Nairiti Sinha join our department,” said Susan Sinnott, head of materials science and engineering. "Her passion for polymer research and teaching is sure to be a valuable addition to our department, benefiting both our research endeavors and our students."
Sinha is a polymer engineer inspired by nature’s materials of choice—polymers and polymer nanocomposites. One question she thinks about in her research is how do we to take a natural object such as a leaf and optimize polymer materials to make them greener, more sustainable, and smarter? Another question, is what methods can we create to generate different sequences of these polymers?”
The Sinha Group at Penn State focuses on the utility of bioinspired sequence-defined polymers (SDP) comprised of peptides, peptoids, nucleic acids, and their polymer conjugates to assemble next generation biomaterials and nanocomposites.
“Using high-throughput synthesis and characterization techniques, we screen and identify unique sequence-driven and molecular design-driven structure-property relationships that can alleviate material design limitations in healthcare, energy, and sustainability fields,” said Sinha. “To this end, we combine our expertise in synthesis techniques such as solid-phase synthesis, ring-opening polymerization, and click chemistry with high-end characterization techniques such as light, X-rays and neutron scattering, optical and electron microscopy, as well as rheology, and various other mechanical testing techniques to discover and optimize biomaterials for targeted applications.”
Currently, the Sinha Group is engaged in three primary research areas: SDP-guided nanoparticle self-assembly, SDP-based coacervating biomaterials, and surfactant-like SDPs. These endeavors reflect Sinha's deep-rooted passion for exploring design-driven structure-property relationships in biomacromolecules, polymers, and their conjugates.
"I am excited to be a part of Penn State and its interdisciplinary culture. On campus, we have access to the best equipment and technologies needed to advance materials science,” Sinha said. “I look forward to contributing to Penn State's legacy of excellence in materials science."
Sinha received a bachelor of technology degree from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai, India, and her Ph.D. from the University of Delaware. During her doctoral studies, she was also associated with the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Sinha pursued her postdoctoral research at the Materials Research Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her work there delved into molecular design-driven structure-property relationships in various materials, including coacervates, hydrogels, and biological nanocomposites.