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Marek W. Urban

Marek Urban

J.E. Sirrine Foundation Endowed Chair and Professor

Phone: (864) 656-1155; (864) 656-0549
Office: 208 AMRL Building; 299A Sirrine Hall
E-mail:mareku@clemson.edu
Website: http://cecas.clemson.edu/urbanresearch/


Overview

Marek W. Urban is the J. E.Sirrine Foundation Endowed Chair and Professor in the Materials Science and Engineering and Chemistry (courtesy) Departments at Clemson University. Prior to joining Clemson University, he was a professor, department chair, and director of polymer science programs at NDSU and USM, where he also directed the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC) as well as Industry/University Cooperative Research (I/U CRC) Centers funded by the National Science Foundation. He is the author of about 500 research publications and 12 patents, the author of four and the editor of seven books. His research on self-healing polymers and antimicrobial polymer surfaces has been featured by numerous media, including NY Times, BBC, NBC, USA Today, Yahoo, NSF, and many others. He is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS) PMSE Division, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the American Institute of Chemists (AIC), and the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAS).  His research group's current research efforts focus on the development of polymeric materials and interfaces with "living-like" functions, self-healing commodity polymers, a new generation of stimuli-responsive materials with adaptable, sensing and signaling functions, as well as spectroscopic imaging methods enabling molecular detection of stimuli-responsiveness.

Education

Ph.D., Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI. (1984)
M.S., Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI. (1981)
B.S./M.S., AGH Univ. of Science & Tech, Cracow, Poland. (1979)

Research Areas

Polymer design
Colloidal synthesis
Self-healing polymers
Surface and interfacial reactions
Stimuli-responsive materials
Biopolymers
Vibrational spectroscopy and molecular imaging

Recent Awards

2019 Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), USA.
2018 URSAAA; University Research, Scholarship and Artistic Achievement Award, Clemson University, SC.
2018 Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC); Oxford, UK.
2017 Chemical Pioneer Award; American Institute of Chemists' Chemical Heritage Foundation; Philadelphia, PA.
2017 Fellow; American Institute of Chemists.
2017 Fellow: American Chemical Society; Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering Division.

Selected Publications

C. Hornat, M.W. Urban, “Shape Memory Effects in Self-Healing Polymers,” Prog. Polym. Sci., Invited Monograph; 100th Anniversary Issue of Hermann Staudinger’s ‘Polymer Hypothesis,’ 101208 (2020).

D.Davydovich, M.W. Urban, Water-Accelerated Self-Healing in Hydrophobic Copolymers, Nature Comm., 2020.

S. Wang, M.W. Urban, “Self-Healing Polymers,” Nature Materials Reviews, 2020, invited monograph; doi.org/10.1038/s41578-020-0202-4.

C.C. Hornat, M.W. Urban, “Entropy and Interfacial Energy Driven Self-Healable Polymers,” Nature Comm., 211, 1028, 2020,  doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14911-y.

S.Wang, M.W. Urban, “Stimuli-Responsible Nanoparticles; Exotic Nanostructures and Quantum Systems,” Book chapter, 21st Century Nanoscience – A Handbook, Vol. 5, Ed. K.D. Sattler, CRC Press, Boca Raton; https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429347313.

M.W. Urban, D. Davidovich, Y. Yang, T. Demir, L.Casabianca, “Key-and-Lock Commodity Self-Healing Copolymers,” 2018, Science, 2018, 362, 220–225.

Y. Yang, D. Davydovich, C.C. Hornat, X. Liu, M.W. Urban, “Leaf-Inspired Self-Healing Polymers,” CHEM,  2018, 4(8), 1928-36.

C.C. Hornat, Y. Yang, M.W. Urban, “Quantitative Predictions of Shape Memory in Polymers,” Adv. Mat., 2017, 29, 1603334.