Millicent Sullivan

Millicent Sullivan is an American chemical engineer and the Alvin B. & Julie O. Stiles Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and department chair at the University of Delaware. She is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. Her research considers the development of polymeric materials for targeted drug delivery and the mechanisms that underpin cell – drug interactions.

Early life and education
Sullivan completed her undergraduate studies at Princeton University. She moved to Carnegie Mellon University for her graduate research, where she focussed on chemical engineering. Sullivan was a Ruth L. Kirschstein postdoctoral fellow at the Benaroya Research Institute. At Benaroya Sullivan worked alongside the biochemist Emily Helene Sage.

Research and career
In 2006 Sullivan joined the University of Delaware. Sullivan is interested in how therapeutics, including nucleic acid treatments and conventional pharmaceuticals, interact with abnormally behaving cells. Targeted drug release offers the potential to improve the prognosis of various medical conditions. At the University of Delaware she was awarded an National Science Foundation CAREER Award that allowed her to study the interaction of cells with gene delivery systems. She makes use polymer-base biomaterials to package DNA-based therapeutics.

She was selected to attend the National Academy of Engineering Frontiers Symposium in 2010. Alongside drug delivery, Sullivan looks to better understand the process of wound healing. She makes use of advanced gene therapies to help people with chronic, non-healing conditions. She has published over 70 scholarly articles that have accrued over 2,000 citations.

Awards and honours

 * 2011 Outstanding Junior Faculty
 * 2013 Georgia Tech Frontiers in Bioengineering Young Investigator
 * 2017 Elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
 * 2020 Fulbright Program Fellowship

Personal life
Sullivan plays the violin.