2025
02/10/2025
Check out the new article by Devosmita Sen and Bradley Olsen in Physical Review Materials! journals.aps.org/prmaterials/ab .
In this work, a fast cycle counting algorithm is presented to quantify polymer network topology based on the concept of 3D-Nets.This framework enables characterization of network topology in terms of local cyclic structures, and is readily generalizable to complex networks beyond polymers, facilitating study of topology-property correlations.
01/31/2025
We would like to warmly welcome the new graduate student, Hannah Uhl (University of Kansas, Class of 2024)! We wish Hannah the best on her PhD journey!
2024
12/20/2024
We would like to warmly welcome postdoctoral associate Dr. Jignesh Mahajan to the group, who got his PhD at the University of Delaware with Prof. LaShanda Korley and Prof. Thomas H. Epps, III.
09/20/2024
We would like to warmly welcome postdoctoral associate Dr. Zixian Cui to the group, who got her Ph.D. at the University of Virginia with Prof. Letteri !
2023
12/31/2023
We would like to warmly welcome the new graduate student, Zhi Kai Tio (M.E. National University of Singapore of 2023, B.E. National University of Singapore of 2021! We wish Zhi Kai the best on the PhD journey!
12/18/2023
Mike Deagen has introduced an algorithm for translating between chemical structure diagrams & BigSMILES notation. This tool bridges human expertise and machine readability.
Read about it here!
10/24/2023
Nathan Rebello et al introduce BigSMARTS, a topological query language and algorithm for polymer search. This innovative tool enables detailed searches that recognize monomer connectivity and polymer topology.
Learn more about polymer substructure search here!
10/3/2023
We warmly welcome MIT UROP Joshika Chakraverty to the Olsen Lab, who is a junior in the Chemical Engineering and Applied Mathematics program. Joshika will work with graduate student Devosmita Sen on studying topology-property relationships in polymer networks using computational and analytical techniques for novel material design.
10/3/2023
We warmly welcome MIT UROP Kanon Hasegawa to the Olsen Lab, who is a senior undergraduate student from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. Kanon will work with graduate student Devosmita Sen on studying topology-property relationships in polymer networks using computational and analytical techniques for novel material design.
9/25/2023
Polymers are ensembles instead of well-defined single structures. Polymers with same molecular structure presentations can be different. We use earth mover’s distance to calculate polymer ensemble similarity.
Check out the article here!
9/15/2023
Congratulations to Prof. Bradley Olsen named the 2023-2024 Fulbright Amazonia Scholar. Learn more about it here!
9/11/2023
We warmly welcome MIT UROP Jiarui Lu to the Olsen Lab, who is an undergraduate student from Wellesley College. Jiarui will work on ML for Polymer Classification with Postdoc in CRIPT.
9/6/2023
We have developed a similarity function to quantitatively calculate the pairwise chemical similarity score for polymers, which benefits building search engines and quantitative design.
Check out the article here!
8/14/2023
CRIPT (Community Resource for Innovation in Polymer Technology) is holding an exhibit booth at the ACS Fall Meeting in 2023!
7/6/2023
Congratulations Olsen Lab visiting student Axel, for obtaining the Master in Chemical Engineering, Aarhus University, Denmark. We are proud of your success.
7/5/2023
We would like to warmly welcome Yijia to the Olsen group, who is a junior from Tsinghua University Yijia will work with graduate student Charlotte Dai on the expression and characterization of sequence-defined proteins!
6/21/2023
We would like to warmly welcome MIT UROP Phoebe Weil to the group, who is an undergraduate chemistry student at Wellesley College. Phoebe will work on high-throughput tests in searching for sustainable polymers with Graduate student Natalie Mamrol!
6/6/2023
Congratulations! Katharina Fransen @katafransen and Sarah Av-Ron, Dylan Walsh, Tess Buchanan, Dechen Rota, and Lana Van Note have developed an expansive biodegradation dataset to help determine whether or not a polymer is biodegradable, published in PNAS!
Check out the article here!
6/5/2023
Congratulations, Dr. Haley Beech and Dr. Ameya Rao!
6/5/2023
Congratulations to Olsen lab undergraduate researcher Dechen Rota and wish her the best of luck at the University of Minnesota!
5/17/2023
Thrilled to announce that Dr. Haley Beech successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis on May 12th, ‘Linking Microscopic Details to Macroscopic Properties in Polymer Gels.’ Congratulations, Dr. Beech, on this stellar achievement!
5/7/2023
Olsen Lab Potluck. Yesterday, We had a great time in the yard of Prof. Olsen’s house. Everyone brought their delicious food.
5/2/2023
Congratulations to our postdoc Dr. Jiale Shi on being named a 2023 PMSE Future Faculty Awardee!
4/12/2023
Welcome to read Dr. Celestine Hong’s recent paper in Advanced Healthcare Materials, “Engineering a Two-Component Hemostat for the Treatment of Internal Bleeding Through Wound-Targeted Crosslinking”! Check it out here!
3/27/2023
Haley Beech from the Olsen Lab will give two talks on polymer networks on Monday with @POLY_ACS communities. Stop by to hear Haley’s presentations!
3/17/2023
Thanks to MIT Chemical Engineering Department for organizing this rock painting event for Random Acts of Kindness Week! Credit to Jiale Shi for making this!
3/13/2023
We would like to welcome Thalyta Santiago to the group, a visiting student from the University of Campinas!
3/13/2023
Thanks to Las Vegasfor hosting a terrific March Meeting, with 6 talksand 2 postersfrom the group, and new ideas! We’ll see you again next year!
3/7/2023
Graduate student Haley K. Beech’s new publication in ACS Macro Letters explores how chain conformation changes during crosslinking, which is fundamental to network theories that predict mechanical properties!
3/6/2023
Members of the Olsen lab are excited to present their work at the APS March Meeting in Las Vegas, NV! Here is the lineup of talks from Olsen Lab. Hope to see you there!
3/3/2023
We present a comprehensive data model for polymer materials to support the Community Resource for Innovation in Technology (CRIPT) data ecosystem! Congratulations to Dr. Dylan J. Walsh on his publication!
2/7/2023
Ph.D. student Alexis Hocken from Olsen Lab is working on a sorting technology to keep small plastics from (literally) falling through the cracks in the recycling process. Check out the article here!
1/16/2023
In his new work, Dr. Dylan J. Walsh designs a versatile, uniform photochemistry platform for increased performance and reproducibility in high-throughput experimentation!
1/10/2023
We would like to welcome new graduate students Gabrielle Godbille-Cardona (Queen’s University Class of 2020) and Brian Carrick (University of Minnesota Class of 2022)! We wish them the best on their PhD journey!
2022
12/06/2022
Congratulations to Dr. Ameya Rao for passing his thesis defense titled “Structure and Dynamics of Associative Polymer Gels”, and a special thanks to his thesis committee members: Professors Gregory Rutledge and Pat Doyle!
11/14/2022
Check out our recent Perspective article on the challenges & opportunities in polymer informatics & autonomous experimentation, told through the lens of human-machine networks & interfaces!
Link to Paper in Cell Reports Physical Science
11/7/2022
Congratulations to Dr. Melody A. Morris for her new work on the development of a low-cost, automated, high-throughput, combinatorial protein expression platform to accelerate protein materials development!
Link to Paper in Molecular Systems Design and Engineering
11/6/2022
The Olsen lab group photo on a beautiful fall day!
10/17/2022
Congratulations to Dr. Tzyy-Shyang Lin, Nathan J. Rebello, Guang-He Lee, and Melody A. Morris for their publication in ACS Polymers Au on a new canonicalization method for the BigSMILES line notation! In one approach, linear polymers can be converted into regular languages, and the minimal deterministic finite automaton can be constructed and associated with each distinct polymer.
Link to Paper in ACS Polymers Au
10/14/2022
Congrats to Sarah Av-Ron and Kat Fransen for their second place video ($1000 award) in the 2022 J-WAFS’ Student Video Competition! They also won the Judges’ Award for Research Originality ($200) and Judges’ Award for Creative Communication ($200)!
10/11/2022
We would like to warmly welcome postdoctoral associate Yu Zheng to the group, who got her PhD from Stanford advised by Professor Zhenan Bao!
10/11/2022
We enjoy the beautiful fall weather and continue the group tradition of apple picking at Honey Pot Hills Orchard!
9/19/2022
Congratulations to Dr. Weizhong Zou for his new publication in Chemical Science, extending BigSMILES line notation to noncovalent bonds to support supramolecular materials and colloidal chemistry!
Link to Paper in Chemical Science
9/16/2022
Today, join us for Multiverse: Art of Polymers, a concert series combining music and science in live performance!
Link to press release!
8/18/2022
Out for ice cream with Professor Marisa Beppu from the University of Campinas! We thank her for her expertise and collaboration as she returns to Brazil!
8/03/2022
We welcome to the group Axel Rosenvinge, a visiting masters student from Aarhus University in Denmark! We look forward to working with him!
7/28/2022
In his new work in Macromolecules, graduate student Oliver Xie extends classical self-consistent field theory to sequence-defined polymers, enabling the design and discovery of phases of complex polymer sequences!
Link to Paper in Macromolecules
7/28/2022
Dr. Irina Rasid’s publication explores the fascinating effects of entanglements on self-diffusion and relaxation in associative polymer gels! Congratulations to collaborators Ameya Rao from the Olsen group and Professor Niels Holten-Anderson from Lehigh University!
Link to Paper in Macromolecules
7/27/2022
Postdoctoral associate Dr. Yiping Cao’s new work describes simple, effective strategies for improving the mechanical performance of protein copolymers as alternatives for conventional plastics!
Link to Paper in Biomacromolecules
7/25/2022
Dr. Weizhong Zou’s exciting new work in Macromolecules uses multiscale approaches to determine the reaction kinetics of radical-mediated grafting of vinyl akoxysilane monomers to polyolefins!
Link to Paper in Macromolecules
7/22/2022
We would like to warmly welcome Bruno Salomão Leão, a visiting student from the University of Campinas, who will be contributing to the CRIPT project!
6/23/2022
Congratulations to the newest Associate Editor of Macromolecules, our professor Dr. Bradley D. Olsen! Check out the press release!
5/30/2022
We warmly welcome our new postdoc and colleague Dr. Jiale Shi, coming from the Whitmer Group at the University of Notre Dame who will contribute to CRIPT project in the Olsen Lab!
5/30/2022
This spring, we welcomed postdoctoral scholar Mike Deagen (PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and previously a postdoc with NanoMine). Mike’s background in data visualization and FAIR data infrastructures is being applied toward the development of the CRIPT user interface and polymer representations.
5/10/2022
Graduate student Katharina Fransen was selected as a J-WAFS Fellow for Water and Food Solutions! Her work in developing biodegradable and bio-based plastics will address the global challenge of protecting communities from large quantities of plastic waste!
Read more in the press release here!
4/27/2022
Congratulations to Dr. Celestine Hong, a PPSM graduate student co-advised by the Olsen and Hammond labs, for successfully defending her thesis!
3/15/2022
Olsen lab graduate student Ameya Rao presents his work at the Padden Award Symposium at the APS March Meeting!
2/23/2022
Excited to share our latest review article with the Hammond lab on treatments for non-compressible torso hemorrhage (NCTH) and internal bleeding!
2/07/2022
Excited to share our latest work in ACS Nano on the effect of particle size on hemostatic efficacy, collaborating with the Hammond lab and Dr. Velmahos’ surgeons at MGH! Congrats to Celestine Hong, Osaid Alser, Anthony Gebran, Yanpu He, Wontae Joo, and Nikolaos Kokoroskos!
2/07/2022
Suppressing the influence of humidity in protein-based materials is central to their use in a variety of applications. In this recent publication in our group in Materials Advances, whey protein was superneutralized to demonstrate a lowered mechanical dependence on humidity.
Link to Paper in Materials Advances
2/01/2022
Congratulations to Ameya Rao for being selected as a Frank J. Padden Jr. Award finalist for the 2022 APS March Meeting! Check out his work here.
1/06/2022
The Olsen group would like to welcome new graduate students Alexis Hocken, Natalie Mamrol, Devosmita Sen, and Alex Zappi! Alexis graduated from ASU (Class of 2021), Natalie from Penn State (Class of 2020), Devosmita from IIT Bombay (Class of 2021), and Alex from University of Louisiana (Class of 2021)! We are excited to have them join the group!
1/01/2022
Just published in Macromolecules, Drs. Akash Arora and Tzyy-Shyang Lin use coarse-grained simulation to describe how topological defects affect polymer network fracture properties, important for designing materials with improved mechanical performance!
Link to Paper in Macromolecules
2021
12/17/2021
Congratulations to the Olsen lab for winning the Door decorating contest in MIT ChemE!
12/15/2021
Excited to share our latest work by graduate student Ameya Rao in collaboration with Prof. Jorge Ramirez (Universidad Polytecnica de Madrid), a deep dive into anomalous diffusion of multi-sticker associating polymers using Brownian dynamics!
Link to Paper in Macromolecules
11/01/2021
Check out the Olsen group’s presentations at AIChE next week in Boston! We look forward to seeing everyone in person!
10/27/2021
The Olsen group at MIT is seeking a postdoctoral scholar to join the CRIPT team!
CRIPT is a large polymer database effort joint between MIT, Dow, Citrine Informatics, NIST, and U. Chicago with almost 30 additional partner organizations. The goal of CRIPT is to speed the pace of innovation for important technological solutions in polymer science through increased availability of data. To do this, we are developing a data ecosystem and associated tools that break down barriers to sharing and collaboration, make data more compliant with the FAIR standard, and help researchers to discover more. Our team’s work includes the development of new informatic tools and search technologies, data standards, data extraction methodologies, and software products.
CRIPT is seeking a postdoc who is interested in joining this team at the forefront of data science, working to develop new informatic tools, algorithms, and software implementations that can help to address key bottlenecks in polymer data handling. This role will be part of the core CRIPT team of four full-time research staff based in Cambridge, MA. This work will involve both fundamental advances in science as well as application development. The qualified candidate should have a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, Materials Science, or a related discipline and should have strong Python programming skills or skills in a related language and a willingness to quickly learn Python. The candidate should enjoy interacting with experimentalists and learning how they think about data and protocols and should be interested in building relationships and collaboration across interdisciplinary teams. Applications will be considered as they are received.
10/24/2021
Excited to share a random forest predictor for diblock copolymer phase behavior, trained on experimental data, with almost twice the accuracy from SCFT, coauthored by Akash Arora, Tzyy-Shyang Lin, Nathan J. Rebello, Sarah Av-Ron, and Hidenobu Mochigase!
Link to Paper in ACS Macro Letters!
10/14/2021
Congratulations to Olsen group postdocs Dr. Melody Morris and Dr. Dylan Walsh on being named PMSE Future Faculty Scholars!
9/27/2021
Check out our most recent paper in ACS Applied Polymer Materials on a simple, inexpensive and scalable rubber recycling process as an alternative to devulcanization! Congratulations to Prof. Calabrese at the University of Minnesota, Wui Yarn Chan, and Sarah Av-Ron!
Link to Paper in ACS Appl. Polym. Mater.!
9/25/2021
We are excited to announce that the CRIPT project, a digital ecosystem for polymers, has received phase 2 funding from the NSF Convergence Accelerator! Read more about it!
9/06/2021
Congratulations to Professor Olsen and the entire MONET team, a center led by Duke, for this renewal from the NSF! We are excited for what the next 5 years will bring and the long-term potential of this research! Check out the press release!
8/22/2021
The Olsen lab team capped off the summer with an exciting group activity, downhill mountain biking, at Highland Mountain Bike Park in New Hampshire! Shoutout to the crew at the park for training us! Here we are after the adventure ended!
8/15/2021
The Olsen Lab would like to welcome graduate student Clara Troyano-Valls, from Johns Hopkins University! We wish her the best of luck on her Ph.D. journey at MIT!
7/28/2021
Special thanks to everyone who attended Day I of the NSF Convergence Accelerator Expo 2021 on July 28th! Visit us 10-4 PM ET tomorrow (July 29th) learn about the Community Resource for Innovation in Polymer Technology (CRIPT), our AI inspired technology for materials data! Please visit the CRIPT homepage to learn more about our polymer data ecosystem, with apps free and available to the polymer community, including the block copolymer phase explorer and the BigSMILES drawing tool!
7/11/2021
Congratulations to Prof. Olsen for winning the 2021 ACS Macro Letters/Biomacromolecules/Macromolecules Young Investigator Award, recognizing individuals who have made a major impact on the field of polymer science! Check out the press release!
7/09/2021
We say goodbye to Dr. Tzyy-Shyang Lin, a polymer physicist by training who worked in materials informatics, who will leave Boston and begin the next stage of his professional career at Synopsys Taiwan. The Olsen family and the MIT community wish him the best of luck!
7/07/2021
This summer, we celebrate the graduation of Dr. Hursh Vardhan Sureka. We and the MIT community wish him all of the best in his future endeavors!
5/03/2021
Check out the new polymer data ecosystem we are developing of data standards, applications, and software frameworks for polymers called the (CRIPT), or the Community Resource of Innovation in Polymer Technology. Please make an account and explore the site! Passwords are not used as the app is still in development, so please do not put any non-public data on the app!
4/16/2021
Congratulations to Nathan J. Rebello and Haley K. Beech on their joint theory-experimental paper in ACS Macro Letters, an update to the famous Flory-Rehner equation for topological defects!
4/01/2021
Congratulations to Haley K. Beech and the MONET team on their publication to the prestigious journal Chemical Reviews, titled Molecular Characterization of Polymer Networks
3/30/2021
Congratulations to Haley K. Beech and MONET, which is an NSF Center For The Chemistry Of Molecularly Optimized Networks, for their new publication in Journal of the American Chemical Society titled Single-Event Spectroscopy and Unravelling Kinetics of Covalent Domains Based on Cyclobutane Mechanophores!
3/22/2021
Congratulations to Ameya Rao for winning the 1st prize at the 2021 APS DPOLY poster competition for his work titled Role of Chain Walking and Hopping on Anomalous Self-Diffusion in Linear Associative Polymers!
3/2/2021
Congratulations to Shu Wang, Haley K. Beech, Brandon H. Bowser, and Tatiana B. Kouznetsova for their publication in Journal of the American Chemical Society titled Mechanism Dictates Mechanics: A Molecular Substituent Effect in the Macroscopic Fracture of a Covalent Polymer Network!
2/25/2021
Congratulations to Dr. Tzyy-Shyang Lin, Nathan J. Rebello, Haley K. Beech, Zi Wang, Dr. Bassil El-Zaatari, and David J. Lundberg for their collaborative paper: a new data schema PolyDAT for polymer characterization in the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling, an ACS Editor’s Choice! This work was in collaboration with the Craig Lab at Duke University, the Jeremiah Johnson Lab at MIT, and Julia Kalow Lab at Northwestern.
1/29/2021
Congrats to Dr. Tzyy-Shyang Lin for being nominated as a Padden Award finalist at the upcoming APS March Meeting! Check out his abstract here.
1/27/2021
Congratulations to Irina M. Rasid for her publication in Macromolecules titled Anomalous Diffusion in Associative Networks of High-Sticker-Density Polymers!
1/14/2021
Congratulations to Dr. Hursh Vardhan Sureka for successfully defended his thesis “Protein Immobilization using Complex Coacervates and Complex Coacervate Thin Films” on Thursday, January 14th with Professors Bradley D. Olsen, Zachary P. Smith and Timothy M. Swager!
1/12/2021
In 2019, our group developed a new line notation that encodes the stochastic nature of polymers called BigSMILES, an extension of the famous SMILES line notation that has brought transformative advances to machine learning and small molecule cheminformatics! Developed by Dr. Tzyy-Shyang Lin, this work was published in ACS Central Science and serves as a key step to building the necessary AI infrastructure to support polymer informatics.
1/12/2021
Interested in Polymers, Data Science, ML or AI; check out our symposium! (NSF Convergence Accelerator program). We will be demoing an early version of our data platform for FAIR polymer data and are seeking community feedback! For more details, please visit https://cript.mit.edu/virtual-symposium-polymer-data!
1/11/2021
Congratulations to Yun Jun Yang, Danielle J. Mai, and Melody A. Morris for their publication in Biomacromolecules, titled Tuning Selective Transport of Biomolecules through Site-Mutated Nucleoporin-like Protein (NLP) Hydrogels!
1/11/2021
Congratulations to Dr. Tzyy-Shyang Lin for successfully defended his thesis “Towards Quantitatively Predicting the Properties of Gels and Elastomers” with Professors Bradley D. Olsen, Gregory C. Rutledge and James W. Swan on Monday, January 11th!
1/1/2021
The Olsen Lab would like to extend a warm welcome to its newest graduate students Charlotte Dai, from UC Santa Barbara, Katharina Fransen, from the University of Minnesota, and Oliver Xie, from McGill University! We wish them the best on their graduate school journey!
