Alexa Kuenstler breaks down her fundamental love of polymers
Alexa Kuenstler breaks down her fundamental love of polymers
There’s no right or wrong way to fall in love with chemical engineering. Just ask Alexa Kuenstler, an assistant professor of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, who once aspired to become a medical doctor.
“I realized that chemical engineering sat at the interface of addressing a lot of important problems,” Kuenstler said. "It's a really intellectually rich space to work in."
“I don’t know why I thought that because I don’t think I have the stomach for it,” Kuenstler joked.
Kuenstler took the path less followed — a path she couldn’t have foreseen. Today, Kuenstler investigates responsive polymer systems and additive manufacturing of
soft materials. Her work focuses on understanding
how these materials behave at the molecular level and how they can be designed to solve major engineering challenges.
That drive to tackle complex problems recently earned her a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to study dynamic covalent networks — materials similar to the plastics used in everyday products, but which have special chemical connections that can be made to temporarily rearrange on the molecular level.
Under normal conditions, those bonds behave like traditional covalent bonds, giving materials the durability needed for demanding applications. Under different forms of energy input, however, the bonds can exchange with one another.
“This allows you now to reconfigure these materials at the molecular scale and then
exploit that to reprocess them at the macroscopic scale,” Kuenstler said.
In practice, that means materials could potentially be recycled or reshaped instead
of discarded. A plastic product could be chopped up, remolded and reused.
“It’s these dynamic bonds that give you a way to access those flow properties that
you need to reprocess it or break it down totally at the end of the material’s life,” Kuenstler said.
These implications could be significant for products like the bodies of airplanes or
wind turbine blades, which are currently difficult to recycle at the end of their lifespan.
“Sustainability is certainly a motivating factor for our work,” Kuenstler said, “but it’s also being open to the surprise of what other applications these materials can be used in once we understand their underlying chemical physics.”
Her fascination with polymers, however, began long before she started studying dynamic covalent networks.
“I just thought polymers were super cool,” Kuenstler said with a laugh.
As an undergraduate at the University of Rochester, Kuenstler discovered her
passion for research after applying for a summer research program with the aim to work in a tissue engineering lab. She ultimately wound up in a lab focused on ion-conducting polymers used in battery electrolytes, an experience that changed her career trajectory.
“I didn’t know anything about ion conduction. I didn’t know what a polymer
was, but I really enjoyed being in a lab atmosphere,” Kuenstler said. “I was really excited to be in a place where people were thinking and talking about hard problems.”
She later pursued graduate studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where her interest in solving fundamental scientific questions continued to grow.
“I really liked thinking about fundamental problems in a way that is sometimes distinct from an industrial viewpoint, although certainly people do really rich work there as well,” Kuenstler said. “I also realized that I really enjoyed teaching and interacting with students.”
After completing a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Colorado, Kuenstler
began considering faculty positions. At the top of her list? Illinois.
“Illinois really stuck out as a place where fundamental science was appreciated and there was an ecosystem of great resources in terms of both people and facilities."
Now in her third year of teaching at Illinois, Kuenstler points to the department’s collaborative environment as one of the most rewarding aspects of her work.
“We like each other,” she said. “We like working on hard problems together, and I think we all recognize that some of the big problems that we all would like to address require many different ways of thinking.”
She has collaborated closely with colleagues Simon Rogers, a ChBE Westwater Professorial Scholar, and Charles Sing, a ChBE James M. and Karen S. Morris Faculty Scholar, combining her expertise in synthesis and characterization with their
theoretical and modeling approaches.
“We’ve been able to understand these materials in a way that three years ago I didn’t imagine that I could,” Kuenstler said.
She also pointed to collaborations with Paul Kenis, Elio Eliakim Tarika Endowed Chair, as another example of the department’s interdisciplinary spirit.
That collaborative mindset, she said, is essential for solving major scientific and engineering challenges and Kuenstler hopes to pass that same spirit on to her students.
“I find the students that I get to work with have a great way of thinking about lots of different kinds of problems,” Kuenstler said. “They’re fearless in going after different kinds of skillsets.”
One of the biggest lessons she shares with graduate students is to pursue work that genuinely resonates with them.
“Find something that excites you and find something that is hard to stop thinking about— something that makes you want to put in the work,” Kuenstler said.
She also encourages students to remain open-minded when exploring opportunities.
“I’ve had students come into our lab who were unsure if the work we were doing would
resonate with them on a technical level, but they really liked our lab culture and then they
just fell in love with the work,” Kuenstler said. “I've seen other people who come and want
to work on these specific projects and after working there for a semester or two, they decide, ‘this is not for me.’ And I think that's all good. I think those are both outcomes that we want as educators – giving people a space to figure that out.”
For undergraduate students, Kuenstler recommends seeking out research opportunities
whenever possible, whether through campus labs, summer programs or conversations with
professors and graduate students.
“I would encourage students to be brave, to step out of their comfort zone,” Kuenstler said.
As a student herself, Kuenstler remembers feeling intimidated approaching professors, which is why she also encourages undergrads to connect with teaching assistants and grad
students.
“The biggest thing is trying to meet different people on campus, build connections and
then through that you decide,” Kuenstler said.
Looking ahead, Kuenstler is excited to watch her first doctoral students graduate and begin
their own careers.
“It’s heartening to know the skills that you’re training people in have the impact, the possibility, to make these really wide-ranging technical impacts that could help people in
a real, tangible way,” Kuenstler said. “You’re giving people skills to go out and do something
good with them.”