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Eugenia Kumacheva is a University Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on physical chemistry and polymer material chemistry, particularly on the study of self-assembly in nonequilibrium phenomena in polymer systems. Her research group is divided into several areas, including polymers, surfaces, and interfaces. Current projects involve studying the equilibrium and dynamic properties of macromolecules and their essential rigidity. She is particularly interested in the self-assembly of rigid-rod polymers in solutions and substrates, surface modification, and surface-induced liquid crystallinity. Additionally, her work examines the interaction of surface-attached layers of water-soluble polymers that bear hydrophobic groups. These polymers have applications as viscosity modifiers in the coatings industry. Kumacheva also investigates how the chemical architecture of macromolecules affects surface-induced micellization and self-assembly. Her recent studies include the development of advanced polymer materials for 3D memory storage and optical applications in electronics, utilizing colloid-chemical methods to produce polymeric materials with periodic modulations in composition and tailored properties. Furthermore, she explores the convection in polymeric liquids induced by temperature gradients to generate non-equilibrium patterns with a high degree of order and symmetry, proposing the use of UV-crosslinking in polymeric fluids to preserve these patterns in a solid state, thus allowing for the production of large-scale ordered mesostructures in polymeric composites.
Department of Sociology