Julia A. Kornfield, Elizabeth W. Gilloon Professor of Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), is an expert in polymer science, particularly how polymers influence and are influenced by flow. She has applied small angle neutron and x-ray scattering to diverse systems, including end-associative polymers for aviation safety and security (Wei et al., Science 2015), flow-induced crystallization of polymers (e.g., Science 2007) and the effects of flow on polymer self-assembly (e.g., Science 1997).
Since she joined the Caltech faculty in 1990, Kornfield has received the Dillon Medal of the American Physical Society, been elected Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and received the Bingham Medal of the Society of Rheology, among other honors. She holds 39 patents and is a co-founder of Calhoun Vision, which uses polymers developed at Caltech to customize vision by noninvasively optimizing a lens after it is implanted into a patients’ eye (FDA-approved 2017). Thus, her work spans from fundamental research on the molecular basis of polymer structure and properties, to commercialization of polymers that improve sustainability health and safety.