Eugenia Kumacheva


Eugenia Kumacheva is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Toronto and a Canada Research Chair in Advanced Functional Materials. Her research interests span across the fields of fundamental and applied polymers science, nanotechnology, microfluidics, and interface chemistry. She was awarded the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science in 2008 "for the design and development of new materials with many applications including targeted drug delivery for cancer treatments and materials for high density optical data storage". In 2011, she published a book titled "Microfluidic Reactors for Polymer Particles " co-authored with Piotr Garstecki. She is currently a tier 1 Canadian researcher in Advanced Polymer Materials and also a Fellow of Royal Society of Canada and Royal Society.

Education and early life

Eugenia Kumacheva was born in Odessa, Soviet Union. After earning her undergraduate degree from the Technical University in St. Petersburg, she worked in industry for several years before beginning her Ph.D. research. In 1986, she obtained her Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry of polymers in the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Career and research

Eugenia then worked as a staff scientist at the Moscow State University before beginning her postdoctoral fellowship supported by Minerva Foundation with Professor Jacob Klein at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. She then joined the research lab of Professor Mitch Winnik at the University of Toronto in Canada to study multicomponent polymer systems. In 1996, Kumacheva became an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Chemistry Department, and in 2005, she was promoted to the ranks of Full Professor. During her career, Kumacheva has delivered numerous invited, plenary and public lectures, and has been recognized by a large number of national and international awards. In 2008, she was the first Canadian recipient of the L'Oréal-UNESCO "Women in Science" Prize. In 2016, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 2017, she was awarded a CIC medal "presented as a mark of distinction and recognition to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to the science of chemistry or chemical engineering in Canada, this is the CIC’s top award." Her book titled Microfluid reactor for Polymer Particles was published in 2011, and describes about the use of liquid flow through microscopic channels as a method of polymerization.
ization of a hetero polymer composed of gold and palladium will form tightly linked nanochains when mixing together in polar solvent
Credit: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed
Kumacheva's work focuses on polymer science, nanoscience, microfluidics, and interface chemistry. She has a strong effort in biomimetic research focused biological tissues, fluids, and environments with polymers and nanomaterials. Kumacheva has been involved with important developments in modeling the biological conditions of myocardial infarctions, strokes, pulmonary embolism, and various other blood related disorders or health conditions using polymers and nano-materials. Some of this work is related to mimicking blood vessels in order to gain a greater understanding of the chemistry and physics involved in blood clots. Kumacheva has been involved in research exploring the potential of microbubbles, a gas enclosed by a natural or synthetic polymer for both diagnostic and therapeutic applications such as targeted drug delivery and molecular imaging. An additional medical application of Kumacheva's work is the creation of hydrogels and various other chemical environments to either support the life of a stem cell, affect necrotic heart tissue as well as deter the metastasis of cancer cells. Kumacheva has been involved in research involving cellulose nanocrystals and fluorescent latex nanoparticles, as well as self-assembling nanocubes.

Quantifying the efficiency of CO₂ capture

Much of her work relates to climate change and lowering CO₂ levels. She has collaborated with Doug Stephan, to investigate the behavior of frustrated Lewis pairs used to separate various elements of natural gas; namely, ethylene from a mixture of ethylene and methane. This work has great industrial importance due to the need for efficient and precise separation of petroleum compounds in various industries.

Study of Extraction

In another study involving frustrated Lewis pairs, Kumacheva used them to quantify the efficiency of binding CO₂ emissions. Measuring the amount of CO₂ bound by the Lewis pairs provided information on the amount that was captured into solution. Some of the reactions in CO₂ uptake require solvents with different properties, but it is expensive to prepare multiple solvents. As a solution to this problem, Kumacheva has worked on solvents with adjustable properties such as hydrophilicity called switchable hydrophilicity solvents. For example, a sterically hindered, large, hydrophobic molecule being protonated to become hydrophilic as necessitated by the reaction process.

Honors and awards

Kumacheva's awards and honors include: