Rate My Professor Anna Balazs

Anna Balazs is the John A. Swanson Chair of Engineering and Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering in the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, where she also serves as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemistry. She earned her A.B. in Physics from Bryn Mawr College in 1975 and her S.M. and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981. Following postdoctoral positions at Brandeis University, MIT, and the University of Massachusetts, she joined the University of Pittsburgh in 1987 as Assistant Professor, was promoted to Associate Professor in 1992, and now holds her distinguished chair. Balazs has served as visiting professor at the Scripps Research Institute, University of Texas at Austin, and Oxford University. She chaired the American Physical Society Division of Polymer Physics from 1999 to 2000 and is Principal Investigator of the NSF Center for Chemo-Mechanical Assembly.

Balazs's research focuses on statistical, mechanical, and computational modeling of complex chemical systems, developing theories for polymer blends and polymer behavior at surfaces and interfaces. Her group creates models for hybrid materials and soft matter, including polymer nanocomposites, self-oscillating gels, communicating microcapsules, and systems undergoing chemo-mechanical transduction. Key publications include 'A functionally complete logic gate in a soft photoresponsive hydrogel' (Nature Communications, 2025), 'Computer Simulations of Soft Responsive Gels with Embedded Regular Arrangements of Stiff Fibers' (Langmuir, 2026), and 'Capturing the dynamic behavior of adsorbed polymers' (Science, 1996). She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2022 for creative work predicting the behavior of soft materials composed of cooperatively interacting components and to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021, becoming the first University of Pittsburgh professor in both academies. Additional honors include the American Physical Society Polymer Physics Prize (2016), Royal Society of Chemistry S F Boys-A Rahman Award (2015), American Chemical Society Langmuir Lecture Award (2014), Mines Medal (2013), and Gutenberg Research Award (2025). Balazs serves on editorial advisory boards for Langmuir, Soft Matter, and Polymer Reviews, and the DOE Basic Energy Sciences Materials Advisory Board.