Jennifer Laaser
About Prof. Laaser
Prof. Laaser is a physical chemist with a strong interest in polymer physics and polymeric materials.
She received her Ph.D in 2013 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she worked with Martin Zanni to develop new methods in ultrafast spectroscopy for investigating the structure and dynamics of molecules at interfaces. After leaving UW-Madison, she was a postdoctoral associate at the University of Minnesota, where she worked with Timothy Lodge to develop a detailed understanding of micelle-based polyelectrolyte complexes for gene delivery applications.
She joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in August 2016, where she is now hard at work setting up a new research group straddling the boundary between physical chemistry, polymer physics, and polymeric materials.
Outside of her research, Prof. Laaser has a strong interest in science outreach, and can often be found explaining cool science to anyone who will listen.
Awards and Honors
- L'Oreal For Women in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship (2014)
- AAAS Mass Media Fellowship (2013)
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2008)
Selected Publications
- Laaser, J.E.; Lohmann, E.; Jiang, Y.; Reineke, T.M.; Lodge, T.P.; Architecture-Dependent Stabilization of Polyelectrolyte Complexes between Polyanions and Cationic Triblock Terpolymer Micelles, Macromolecules, 2016, 49, 6644-6654 (doi: 10.1021/acs.macromol.6b01408)
- Laaser, J.E.; Jiang, Y.; Petersen, S.R.; Reineke, T.M.; Lodge, T.P.; Interpolyelectrolyte Complexes of Polycationic Micelles and Linear Polyanions: Structural Stability and Temporal Evolution, J. Phys. Chem. B, 2015, 119, 15919-15928 (doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.5b09010)
- Laaser, J.E.; Jiang, Y.; Sprouse, D.; Reineke, T.M.; Lodge, T.P.; pH- and Ionic-Strength-Induced Contraction of Polybasic Micelles in Buffered Aqueous Solutions, Macromolecules, 2015, 48, 2677-2685 (doi: 10.1021/acs.macromol.5b00360)
- Laaser, J.E.; Christianson, J.R.; Oudenhoven, T.A.; Joo, Y.; Gopalan, P.; Schmidt, J.R.; Zanni, M.T.; Dye Self-Association Identified by Intermolecular Couplings between Vibrational Modes As Revealed by Infrared Spectroscopy, and Implications for Electron Injection,J. Phys. Chem. C, 2014, 118, 5854-5861 (doi: 10.1021/jp412402v)
- Laaser, J.E.; Skoff, D.R.; Ho, J.-J.; Joo, Y.; Serrano, A.L.; Steinkruger, J.D.; Gopalan, P.; Gellman, S.H.; Zanni, M.T.;Two-Dimensional Sum-Frequency Generation Reveals Structure and Dynamics of a Surface-Bound Peptide, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2014, 136, 956-962 (doi: 10.1021/ja408682s)