Dr. Pamela Cai is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering with Prof. Matthew Tirrell. She received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University (2023) under the guidance of Profs. Andrew Spakowitz and Sarah Heilshorn. She obtained her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from MIT (2016). Dr. Cai has received many accolades, including the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and the Frank J. Padden Jr. Award for Excellence in Polymer Physics Research.

2024 CME NASA Symposium Abstract

Biopolymers, from engineered hydrogels to natural biological materials like mucus and DNA, play a large role in our lives. Many of these biopolymer-based materials contain dynamic bonds, further complicating the determination of structure-property relationships. Theoretical models of polymer physics paired with experimental synthesis and characterization of dynamically associating biopolymers have the power to direct design of new polymeric materials and elucidate essential physics driving function in biological fluids.