Nancy Sottos
Swanlund Endowed Chair
Nancy Sottos is the Swanlund Endowed Chair and Head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She currently serves as leader of the Autonomous Materials Systems Group at the Beckman Institute and director of the University of Illinois spoke of the BP International Center for Advanced Materials. Sottos is also a co-founder of Autonomous Materials Inc. (AMI). Inspired by autonomous function in biological systems, the Sottos group develops polymers and composites capable of self-healing and regeneration, self-reporting, and self-protection to improve reliability and extend material lifetime. Her current research interests focus on new bioinspired methods to manufacture these complex materials. Sottos’ research and teaching awards include the ONR Young Investigator Award, Scientific American’s SciAm 50 Award, the Hetényi Best Paper Award in Experimental Mechanics, the M.M. Frocht and B.J. Lazan Awards from the Society for Experimental Mechanics, the Daniel Drucker Eminent Faculty Award, the IChemE Global Research Award, and the Society of Engineering Science Medal. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Society for Experimental Mechanics and the Society for Engineering Science.