Victoria Muir started as an Assistant Professor at University of Delaware in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in Fall 2024. Her lab designs hydrogel biomaterials and biofabrication platforms to study cell behavior and create functional living materials, integrating ideas from biomaterials science, microbiology, 3D printing, and biophysics to address challenges across medicine and environmental science. Current areas of research include designing materials to study cell movement in complex environments; creating microenvironments to study host-pathogen interactions; designing microbial living biomaterials; and biofabrication for soft and living materials.
Victoria completed her doctoral degree in 2022 as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania in the lab of Prof. Jason Burdick (now at Colorado – Boulder), where she studied hydrogel biomaterials for injectable musculoskeletal tissue repair and 3D bioprinting applications. Subsequently, she pursued postdoctoral studies at Princeton University as a Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Prof. Sujit Datta (now at Caltech), where she combined experimental and theoretical approaches to study the dynamics of bacteria and viruses in porous media. She received her B.ChE. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware in 2018.
Victoria has been highly engaged with AIChE for many years, starting from her undergraduate days in the University of Delaware Student Chapter leadership team (2014-2018). Since then, she has served multiple different roles in the Early Career Community (ECC), including as Chair (2020-2023). Victoria is currently a member of the Career and Education Operating Council (CEOC), and also is active in session organizing in multiple AIChE divisions and forums in the biomaterials field. Victoria has received multiple recognitions for her research, leadership, and volunteerism with AIChE, including the inaugural Poddar Award for Rising Chemical Engineers (2019), the AIChE 35 Under 35 Award (2023), and the Delaware Valley Local Section Outstanding Alumni Award (2023).