Steve Granick is an American scientist and educator. In 2023 he will join the

University of Massachusetts-Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, i ...

as the Robert Barrett Chair of Polymer Science and Engineering, with joint appointment in the Chemistry, Physics, and Chemical Engineering Departments after serving as director of the Institute for Basic Science Center for Soft and Living Matter, an interdisciplinary blue-sky research center in

Ulsan Ulsan (), officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City is South Korea's seventh-largest metropolitan city and the eighth-largest city overall, with a population of over 1.1 million inhabitants. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighboring ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

that pursues basic science research. He is a member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

and the

U.S. National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Natio ...

Education

Granick obtained his B.A. in

Sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

in 1978 by correspondence and after initially dropping out during his Junior year. He earned his Ph.D. in

Chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

from the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

in 1982 with

John D. Ferry John Douglass Ferry (May 4, 1912 – October 18, 2002) was a Canadian-born American chemist and biochemist noted for development of surgical products from blood plasma and for studies of the chemistry of large molecules. He did postdoctoral work at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

with M. V. Tirrell and at the Collège de France with Nobel-laureate Pierre-Gilles de Gennes.“IBS Center for Soft and Living Matter”
/ref>

Academic career

Steve Granick joined the faculty of the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

in 1985 and rose through the ranks to become Racheff Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and concurrently Professor of

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

and Biophysics, Professor of Chemistry, and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. In 2014, after thirty years at the University of Illinois, he moved to South Korea to join the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), founding the Center for Soft and Living Matter with additional appointments as Professor of Chemistry and Physics at UNIST. In 2023 he will join the

as the Robert Barrett Chair of Polymer Science and Engineering, with joint appointment in the Chemistry, Physics, and Chemical Engineering Departments.

Research and achievements

Granick is the author of more than 300 scientific articles and has made fundamental contributions to the chemistry and physics of soft materials. By fall 2022, his publications had received over 30,000 citations with

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as winn ...

of 92."Google Scholar: Steve Granick"
/ref> His research interests range from the study of

active matter Active matter is matter composed of large numbers of active "agents", each of which consumes energy in order to move or to exert mechanical forces. Such systems are intrinsically out of thermal equilibrium. Unlike thermal systems relaxing toward ...

to the chemistry and physics of visualized macromolecules,

vesicles Vesicle may refer to: ; In cellular biology or chemistry * Vesicle (biology and chemistry), a supramolecular assembly of lipid molecules, like a cell membrane * Synaptic vesicle ; In human embryology * Vesicle (embryology), bulge-like features o ...

, and supracolloidal materials. The early work in Granick's career focused on confined liquids. Granick was a pioneer in the field of nanorheology and molecular

tribology Tribology is the science and engineering of interacting surfaces in relative Motion (physics), motion. It includes the study and application of the principles of friction, lubrication and wear. Tribology is highly interdisciplinary, drawing on m ...

. Other early work concerned molecular mobility at polymer surfaces. This progressed to later studies showing how

biological membrane A biological membrane, biomembrane or cell membrane is a selectively permeable membrane that separates the interior of a cell from the external environment or creates intracellular compartments by serving as a boundary between one part of the ce ...

s interact with their environments. More recently, Granick and his research team work across disciplines to explore imaging, assembly, behavior and interactions of molecules, colloidal particles, and their assemblies. He made the first measurements of polymer surface diffusion in the key limit of dilute concentration and he identified the important class of physical problems where diffusion is anomalous yet Brownian. His laboratory became interested in many instances of molecular mobility measured at the

single-molecule A single-molecule experiment is an experiment that investigates the properties of individual molecules. Single-molecule studies may be contrasted with measurements on an ensemble or bulk collection of molecules, where the individual behavior of mo ...

level, including

and transport in

living cells The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of life forms. Every cell consists of a cytoplasm enclosed within a membrane, and contains many biomolecules such as proteins, DNA and RNA, as well as many small molecules of nutrients an ...

. The other principal current area of Granick's research concerns Janus colloidal particles, their self-assembly at rest and driven outside equilibrium. The scientific importance is to understand

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charle ...

in the colloid world.

Public service and international experience

Before serving as IBS Director in South Korea Steve Granick served as Chair of the Department of Energy (DOE) Council on Materials Panel on Polymers at Interfaces and Chair of the Division of Polymer Physics of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

(APS). He holds or has held honorary or visiting positions at numerous international universities.

Honors and awards

Granick was elected Member of the

in 2015, and Member of the

in 2016. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He is the recipient of numerous international awards, including the APS (American Physical Society) national Prize for Polymer Physics, the ACS (American Chemical Society) national Prize for Surface and Colloid Science, and the Paris-Sciences Medal.

Works

* 2017—Inaugural publication as a member of the National Academy of Sciences:

References

External links

Steve Granick’s group at the University of IllinoisIBS Center for Soft and Living Matter in South Korea
{{DEFAULTSORT:Granick, Steve Living people 1953 births 21st-century American physicists 20th-century American physicists 21st-century American chemists Princeton University alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences American expatriates in South Korea Institute for Basic Science Tribologists Fellows of the American Physical Society