Padma Gopalan selected Fellow of the Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering Division

The American Chemical Society Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) has selected Padma Gopalan, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for its 2026 class of PMSE Fellows.

The rank of fellow honors PMSE members for scientific and technological contributions to polymer material science and engineering. Gopalan was cited for her seminal contributions to self-assembly of polymeric materials at the interfaces of soft and hard materials.

Gopalan’s research is focused on the development of nanostructured polymeric materials for addressing problems at the interface of chemistry, materials science and chemical engineering. Her work includes the development block copolymers and methods for their thin-film assembly in the sub-10 nanometer length scales; mixed polymer brush synthesis and self-assembly; and conjugated polymers for sorting and assembly of semiconducting carbon nanotubes.

During her career, she has produced over 150 peer-reviewed publications and holds over 25 patents.

Gopalan is the recipient of many awards including an NSF-funded CAREER award as well as many honors from UW-Madison, including a Romnes Faculty Fellowship, Vilas Associates award, and Kellett Mid-career award. She was a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professorship from 2015-2020 and a visiting professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology between 2018 and 2020. 

Gopalan was the co-leader of the UW-Madison NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center between 2015 and 2018 and directed the NSF-funded Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center at UW-Madsion from 2012-2015, where she was instrumental in establishing a soft materials characterization facility on campus. 

The PMSE Fellow award will be officially presented at the American Chemical Society spring meeting held in Atlanta, Georgia, March 22-26, 2026.