ANGELA BELCHER, Ph.D. - Nanotechnologist
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Angela Belcher is a materials chemist with expertise in the fields of biomaterials, biomolecular materials, organic-inorganic interfaces and solid state chemistry.

She received her B.S. in Creative Studies with an emphasis in biochemistry and molecular biology from The University of California Santa Barbara and earned a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from that school in 1997. Following a year of postdoctoral research in electrical engineering at UCSB, she joined the faculty at The University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 1999. Belcher then joined the faculty at MIT as the John Chipman Associate Professor of Materials, Science and Engineering and Biological Engineering.

Belcher’s interest focuses on interfaces, which includes the interfaces of scientific disciplines as well as those of materials. In her group at MIT, they are using nature as a guide to make novel electronic and magnetic materials and to pattern materials on nano-length scales. Belcher and her students are integrating approaches from several scientific disciplines, including materials chemistry, inorganic synthesis, surface chemistry, molecular biology, biochemistry and electrical engineering. They are adapting the conditions and control mechanisms found in nature to non-biological inorganic materials such as magnetic and semiconductor materials.

Some of Dr. Belcher’s recent awards include 2003 Top Ten Innovators Under 40 (Fortune Magazine), 2002 World Technology Award (Materials), 2002 Popular Science Brilliant Ten, and 2002 Technology Review Top 100 Inventors (TR100). In 2002, she was named as one of 12 women expected to make the biggest impact in Chemistry in the next century by Chemical and Engineering. In addition, in 2002, she was runner-up for Innovator of the Year by Small Times Magazine, runner-up for Researcher of the Year by Small Times Magazine and finalist for Scientist of the Year by Wired Magazine.
She is a 2001 Packard Fellow, 2001 Wilson Prize in Chemistry-Harvard University, 2001 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, 2000 Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering (PECASE), 2000 Beckman Young Investigator Award, 1999 DuPont Young Investigator Award and 1999 Army Research Office Young Investigators Award.