Professor Jennifer Laaser joins the department as an assistant professor in physical chemistry. Originally from Palo Alto, California, Dr. Laaser obtained her PhD in 2013 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she worked with Professor Martin Zanni to develop new ultrafast spectroscopic methods for investigating interfacial structure and dynamics in materials and biophysical systems. After completing her PhD, she moved to the University of Minnesota, where pursued postdoctoral studies in polymer physics with Professor Timothy Lodge. While at Minnesota, she received the L'Oreal For Women in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship to support her work on polyelectrolyte complexation in model systems for polymeric gene delivery agents.
At Pitt, Dr. Laaser's research is at the boundary of physical chemistry and polymer science. Her lab uses optical and spectroscopic techniques in conjunction with controlled synthesis and classical materials characterization methods to build molecular-level understanding of the behavior of responsive polymeric materials and inform materials design. Outside of her research, Prof. Laaser also has a strong interest in science outreach, and can often be found explaining cool science to anyone who will listen.