Dr. Craig Jon Hawker is a distinguished polymer chemist and leading authority in materials science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He currently serves as Director of the California Nanosystems Institute, Director of the Dow Materials Institute, and Co-Director of the Materials Research Laboratory at UCSB while holding the Alan and Ruth Heeger Chair in Interdisciplinary Science and serving as the Clarke Professor. Born in Australia on January 11, 1964, he received his BSc with First Class Honors from the University of Queensland in 1984 and completed his PhD in bio-organic chemistry at the University of Cambridge under Professor Sir A.R. Battersby in 1988. Following postdoctoral work with Professor J.M.J. Fréchet at Cornell University, he began his professional career at IBM Almaden Research Center in 1990, where he spent fourteen years before joining the faculty at UCSB in 2004.
Dr. Hawker's groundbreaking research has focused on the interface between organic and polymer chemistry, with particular emphasis on designing, synthesizing, and applying well-defined macromolecular structures across diverse fields including biotechnology, microelectronics, and surface science. His major contributions include the development of living free radical polymerization processes that enable precise control over molecular weight, molecular weight distribution, macromolecular architecture, and polymer composition, transforming the field of synthetic polymer chemistry. He pioneered robust, efficient, and orthogonal reactions for preparing functional materials that tolerate a wide variety of functional groups and reaction conditions, bringing unprecedented control over multiple functional groups previously associated only with biological systems. With over 300 publications, more than 45 patents, and recognition as one of the top 100 most cited chemists worldwide for two consecutive decades (1992-2002 and 2000-2010), his work has established new paradigms for creating sophisticated polymeric architectures with precisely controlled properties.
As a leader in his field, Dr. Hawker has received numerous prestigious honors including election to the National Academy of Sciences (2022), the National Academy of Engineering (2021), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2018), and the Royal Society (2010). His current research interests center on designing and synthesizing nanoscopically defined materials for applications ranging from next-generation microelectronic devices to polymer-based therapeutics, with major emphasis on developing methods for facile synthesis of functionalized macromolecules with well-controlled architectures. The integration of fundamental advances in polymer synthesis with detailed understanding of physical properties has led to significant commercial success in personal care, pharmaceutical, and advanced materials industries. Through his leadership of multiple research institutes and his extensive mentorship of students and postdoctoral researchers, Dr. Hawker continues to shape the future of polymer science and materials chemistry, bridging the gap between fundamental discovery and practical applications that address pressing technological challenges.
