Rate My Professor Joanna Aizenberg

Joanna Aizenberg is the Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science and Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She received a B.S. in Chemistry in 1981 and an M.S. in Physical Chemistry in 1984 from Moscow State University, followed by a Ph.D. in Structural Biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1996. She completed postdoctoral research at Harvard University with George Whitesides from 1996 to 1998, focusing on micro- and nanofabrication and near-field optics. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty in 2007, she was a researcher in the Nanotechnology Research Department at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, from 1998 to 2007. Her research interests include biomineralization, biomimetics, self-assembly, crystal engineering, surface chemistry, nanofabrication, biomaterials, biomechanics, and biooptics. Aizenberg has held additional roles such as Director of Science Programs at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study from 2010 to 2013 and has served on boards including the Materials Research Society and the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. She has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Physical Society. Among her honors are the MRS Medal, the Kavli Innovations in Chemistry Leader Award, the Ronald Breslow Award for Achievement in Biomimetic Chemistry from the American Chemical Society, the George Ledlie Prize from Harvard University, and multiple named lectureships and visiting professorships. She has authored approximately 240 publications and holds around 70 issued patents. Aizenberg is also affiliated with the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, the Harvard University Center for the Environment, and the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center.

Her work has advanced the understanding of biological architectures and their application to engineered materials, contributing to developments in soft matter, surface and interface science, and related fields. She maintains an active laboratory focused on bioinspired engineering and continues to participate in interdisciplinary initiatives at Harvard.