So-Jung Park Professor

Dr. So-Jung Park is a professor in the department of chemistry and nanoscience at Ewha womans university. She obtained her Ph.D. in Chemistry at Northwestern University in 2002 under the guidance of Prof. Chad Mirkin with a thesis on DNA-mediated assembly of nanostructured materials: structure, properties, and biodetection applications. Her PhD work was recognized by several prestigious awards including the ACS Nobel signature award. She then carried out her postdoctoral research with Prof. Paul Barbara at University of Texas at Austin, where she developed a new technique that allows for single molecule optical measurements correlated with electrical modulation for photophysical studies of semiconducting polymers and nanocrystals. She joined the faculty of the department of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania as an assistant professor in the fall of 2005 and promoted to an associate professor with tenure in 2012. She then moved to Ewha woman’s university as a professor in 2013. Her research focuses on self-assembly of nanoparticles and functional polymers and their applications in biomedicine and optoelectronic devices. Her current research topics includes 1) colloidal self-assembly of nanoparticles and block-copolymers, 2) functional block copolymers (e.g., DNA, conjugated polymers), 3) plasmonic nanoparticles, and 4) dynamic nanostructures. The research projects aim to understand collective behaviour of nanomaterials and to develop new functional materials through self-assembly. She has received the NSF career award, ARO young investigator award, and Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award. She is serving as an associate editor for ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces and an advisory board member for Nanoscale.