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Joanna Aizenberg is a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University. She is the Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences,[1] the co-director of the Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology and a core faculty member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. She is a prominent figure in the field of biologically inspired materials science, having authored 230 publications and holding 50 patents.

Aizenberg has been well regarded for her research in the field of biomimetics, with her primary focus being in biomineralization, or the biological formation of mineral structures. Using species such as the Nepenthes pitcher plant and sea sponges as references, Aizenberg and her constituents have developed numerous inventions in her Harvard biomimetics lab, including “SLIPS,” a nonstick and self-healing surface coating.

Her accomplishments in the fields of science and engineering have led Aizenberg to receive the honor of being elected into the National Academy of Engineering. Her induction will take place in October of 2019.

Early Life
Growing up in Russia as the daughter of a civil engineer and a physician, Joanna Aizenberg was never far from the sciences. Her interest and prowess in mathematics was obvious as she won mathematical olympiads throughout her time in primary and secondary schools. Choosing to remain in Russia after graduating high school, Aizenberg then enrolled into the Moscow State University. She received both her bachelor’s degree in chemistry (1981) and master’s in physical chemistry (1983), stating that she “chose to study chemistry because I felt it had really a lot to offer in the areas of materials, medicine, and consumer products that affect our everyday lives. Its breadth and far reach appealed and continues to appeal to me.”

After receiving her masters, Aizenberg decided to continue her education outside of Russia, where there were more opportunities to further her learning in her field. She moved to Israel, and began studying at the Weizmann Institute of Science, a school known for its focus on natural and exact sciences. She received her PhD in structural biology in 1991, and began having an interest in studying crystalline structures, such as those formed by marine organisms. This interest in organic materials pushed her into entering Harvard University, where she received her postdoctoral education in materials chemistry under the guidance of renowned chemist and Harvard Professor George Whitesides. Aizenberg would go on to contribute to research by Professor Whitesides and his Whitesides Research Group, such as works based on photolithography, microfabrication, crystal growth, and near field optics.

Career
In 1998, Aizenberg began her own research at Bell Labs in New Jersey, a scientific research company owned by Nokia telecommunications. She continued to work at the nanotechnology department of Bell Labs for 9 years, conducting her work with only two other postdoctoral associates. “As a member of the technical staff... she has made a number of pioneering contributions, including developing new biomimetic approaches for the synthesis of ordered mineral films with highly controlled shapes and orientations, and discovering unique biological optical systems that outperform technological analogs, as well as characterizing the associated organic molecules.”[4]

In 2007, after nearly a decade at the labs, Joanna Aizenberg returned to Harvard, though this time filling a different role, joining the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.[2][5] Her time spent with students at the Bell Labs helped her realize she had a deeper passion for teaching, and unlike the small team she worked with before, Aizenberg now had a number of students to help her with her research. This allowed her to teach, while also focusing on various different projects, including what would later become some of her most famous works. Along with teaching at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Aizenberg also began teaching chemistry at Harvard’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.

Besides teaching, Aizenberg also took positions as the director for the Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology and as a core member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Furthermore, she created a lab within Harvard named the Aizenberg Biomineralization and Biomimetics Lab, which she is the leader of. The lab's research investigates a wide range of topics that include biomimetics, self-assembly, adaptive materials, crystal engineering, surface wettability, nanofabrication, biooptics, biomaterials, and biomechanics.[6] She has gone on to explain that she considers some of her biggest achievements to be achieving precise control over crystal morphology, and discovering new multifunctional materials inspired by biological functions.

One major discovery made by Aizenberg was named “Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces”, or “SLIPS”. SLIPS is described as a “non-stick, ultra-repellent, self-healing, surface coating for industrial and medical materials.” As described by the Aizenberg Biomineralization and Biomimetics Lab: “We have created surfaces that show almost perfect slipperiness toward polar and organic liquids, complex substances such as blood, oil, and ketchup, a genetically diverse range of bacteria and algae, and solid materials such as ice, dust, and insects.” As a result of this major discovery, a company named the Adaptive Surface Technologies Inc. was formed, co-founded by Joanna Aizenberg in 2014. SLIPS was showcased to a New York audience at the 2012 TedxBigApple conference by Joanna Aizenberg herself. In her presentation, which was titled “Extreme Biomimetics,” she discussed the inspiration for the product came from the carnivorous Nepenthes pitcher plant.

Another one of Aizenberg’s known discoveries is the “Self-regulating Artificial Material Systems (SMARTS).” The material is described as being a self-regulating, self-powered, homeostatic materials capable of precisely tailored chemo-mechano-chemical feedback loops at the nano/microscale. The material has been discussed as being able to react and change according to weather and heat fluctuations, modifying itself to always keep the same temperature.

Aizenberg’s research has won her numerous awards, including the Industrial Innovation Award from the American Chemical Society in 2007, and the Ronald Breslow Award for the Achievement in Biomimetic Chemistry in 2008. Her most recent honor was her election into the National Academy of Engineering in 2019.

Personal Life
Aizenberg is married to a fellow chemist, whom she shares children and grandchildren with. She currently resides in Massachusetts while teaching at Harvard University.

Awards

 * Elected to the American Philosophical Society (2016)
 * Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2014)
 * Ronald Breslow Award for the Achievement in Biomimetic Chemistry, ACS 2008
 * Industrial Innovation Award, American Chemical Society, 2007
 * Outstanding Women Scientists Award, Indiana University, 2006
 * Lucent Chairman’s Award, 2005
 * Pedersen Award Lecture, DuPont, 2005
 * ACS PROGRESS Lectureship Award, University of Wisconsin at Madison, 2004
 * Distinguished Women Scientists Lectureship, University of Texas at Austin, 2003
 * New Investigator Award in Chemistry and Biology of Mineralized Tissues, 2001
 * Arthur K. Doolittle Award of the American Chemical Society (ACS), 1999
 * Award of the Max-Planck Society in Biology and Materials Science, Germany, 1995