Faculty/Researcher List

Peter Kofinas

UMD - Faculty

Research

Biotech, Materials

Functional Nano-Structured Polymers, Virus Recognition

Peter Kofinas is an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Dr. Kofinas received his bachelors and masters degrees in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) , and a PhD in materials science and engineering from MIT in 1994 in the interdisciplinary Program of Polymer Science and Technology (PPST). He was then appointed as a post-doctoral research associate in the department of Chemical Engineering at MIT for 2 years before joining the faculty at University of Maryland in September of 1996. Professor Kofinas received the CAREER award from the National Science Foundation in 1999 for his research and educational activities on block copolymer nanostructures. Professor Kofinas has also received the Outstanding Junior Faculty Teaching award from the School of Engineering at the University of Maryland in 1999. A process developed in Dr. Kofinas' laboratory to ceate polymer-based megnetic nanocomposites was selected as the Physical Science Invention of the Year for 2002 by the university Office of Technology Commercialization. The main thrust of Professor Kofinas' research program aims in the synthesis characterization and development of novel polymer based nanostructured systems used in a variety of technological fields ranging from medicine to microelectronics. Emphasis is given on synthesizing well characterized polymer systems to help elucidate structure-property relationships. Present problems of interest include the design of molecularly imprinted polymers for recognition of specific plant insect and human viruses, the investigation of novel functional magnetodielectric and biomimetic nanostructures within self-assembled block copolymer templates, and the design of all-solid state nanoscale capacitor and polymer battery systems.