Monica Olvera de la Cruz

Monica Olvera de la Cruz
Born Mexico City
Fields physics
Institutions Northwestern University
Alma mater UNAM
University of Cambridge
Doctoral advisor Sir Sam Edwards
Known for soft matter physics
electrolytes
Notable awards David and Lucile Packard Foundation fellowship (1989)
Presidential Young Investigator Award (1990)
National Academy of Sciences Cozzarelli Prize (2007)
National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship (2010)
Miller Institute Visiting Professor (2015-16)
Website
http://aztec.tech.northwestern.edu

Monica Olvera de la Cruz is a soft-matter theorist, the Lawyer Taylor Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University.

Biography

Olvera de la Cruz obtained her B.A. in Physics from the UNAM, Mexico, in 1981, and her Ph.D. in Physics from Cambridge University, UK, in 1985. Olvera de la Cruz is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences[1] and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the American Physical Society.

She directed the Northwestern Materials Research Center[2] from 2006–2013, which she grew in research, funding level[3][4] and education, and expanded it to impact society beyond science and engineering by facilitating development of visionary outreach programs in the arts such as The Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts (NU-ACCESS), which was established by the co-Directors Francesca Casadio and Katherine T. Faber.[5]

Olvera de la Cruz founded the alliance of the Northwestern MRSEC with the University of San Antonio PREM.[6]

Research

Olvera de la Cruz has developed novel methods to analyze complex systems. In her PhD studies, she found that DNA undergoes large size oscillations during gel electrophoresis that result in a molecular weight independent mobility.[7] This leads to the inability to separate long chains (i.e., determine long DNA sequences), which was of great importance to the Human Genome Project. She showed that these chain oscillations can be used to optimize DNA separation by using pulsed fields.[8][9] Her group also studies incompatible multicomponent solutions, including dynamics and adsorption of minority components at interfaces. Finally, she demonstrated ionic-driven co-assembly, discovering a way to assemble materials with highly functional properties and explaining processes such as DNA adsorption to like-charged surfaces.

Her current work is focused on self-assembly of heterogeneous molecules, charged molecules and in molecular electrolytes. She has described emergence of shape and patterns in membranes and in multicomponent complex mixtures. She and her students and postdocs discovered that electrostatics leads to spontaneous symmetry breaking in ionic membranes such as viral capsid[10] (for which they were awarded the 2007 Cozarelli Prize),[11] and in fibers.[12][13]

They also demonstrated the spontaneous emergence of various regular and irregular polyhedral geometries in closed membranes with non-homogeneous elastic properties such as bacterial microcompartments including carboxysomes[14] via a mechanism that explains observed shapes in crystalline shells formed by more than one component such as archaea and organelle wall envelopes as well as in ionic vesicles.[15]

Awards and significant honors

Policy and public service

Olvera de la Cruz currently serves in the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee,[19] United States Department of Energy, and on the Board of Physics and Astronomy, United States National Research Council. She has participated in various National Research Council committees including the Committee on Societal Benefits from Condensed Matter and Materials Research, Research at the Intersection of Physical and Life Sciences (RIPLS), the Solid State Science Committee and the Committee on Key Challenge Areas for Convergence and Health; from 2010-12 she chaired the Condensed Matter and Materials Research Committee. From 2005 to 2009 she was in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate Advisory Committee of the National Science Foundation, and chaired the Division of Materials Research Advisory Committee.

Personal life

Olvera de la Cruz and her husband Michael J. Bedzyk (http://matsci.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/profiles/michael-j-bedzyk.html) have a daughter, Ana Jimena Pavlovitch-Bedzyk.

References

  1. ↑ "Monica Olvera de la Cruz". Nasonline.org. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  2. ↑ "Northwestern University Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC)". Mrsec.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  3. ↑ "NSF Award Search: Award#0520513 - MRSEC: Multifunctional Nanoscale Material Structures". Nsf.gov. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  4. ↑ "NSF Award Search: Award#1121262 - CEMRI: Multifunctional Nanoscale Material Structures". Nsf.gov. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  5. ↑ "Nu Access". Nuaccess.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  6. ↑ "Utsa Prem". Prem-mrsec.org. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  7. ↑ "Olvera De La Cruz, M.; Deutsch, J.M.; Edwards, S.F., "Electrophoresis in Strong Fields" Phys. Rev. A 33 (3), P20472055 (1986)".
  8. ↑ Gel electrophoresis
  9. ↑ "Maddox, John, "Understanding Gel Electrophoresis" Nature 345, 381 - 381, 1990".
  10. ↑ Graziano Vernizzi * and Monica Olvera de la Cruz * , † , ‡. "Vernizzi and Olvera de la Cruz, "Faceting ionic shells into icosahedra via electrostatics", Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 104 (47) 18382 (2007)". Pnas.org. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  11. 1 2 "Cozzarelli Prize". Pnas.org. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  12. ↑ "Kohlstedt et al., "Spontaneous Chirality via Long-Range Electrostatic Forces", Phys. Rev Lett. 99, 030602 (2007)". Prl.aps.org. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  13. ↑ "Solis, Vernizzi and Olvera de la Cruz, "Electrostatic driven pattern formation in fibers, nanotubes and pores" Soft Matter 7, 1456 - 1466, 2011". Pubs.rsc.org. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  14. ↑ "Vernizzi, Sknepnek and Olvera de la Cruz, "Platonic and Archimedean geometries in multi- component elastic membranes" Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 108, 4292-4296 (2011)". Pnas.org. 2011-02-28. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  15. ↑ "Leung et al., "Molecular Crystallization Controlled by pH Regulates Mesoscopic Membrane Morphology" ACS Nano 6, 10901-10909(2012)". Pubs.acs.org. 2012-11-27. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  16. ↑ "News Release: DOD Names 2010 National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellows". Defense.gov. 2009-03-12. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  17. ↑ "NSF Award Search: Award#9057764 - Presidential Young Investigator Award". Nsf.gov. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  18. ↑ "Monica Olvera de la Cruz « Packard Foundation". Packard.org. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  19. ↑
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, January 27, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.