$478,476 over a five-year period.
The prize was given by the National Science Foundation’s Materials Research branch for the paper “Chirality and polymer thermodynamics: frustration and amplification.” According to the press statement from the RIT, “The scientists look to space for origins of the solar system; chemical engineers like Poornima Padmanabhan are searching for the origins of life based on minute systems of molecules.”
As part of her prize and the research she would continue with that grant, Padmanabhan explained that her areas of study will be investigating how proteins fold and how life emerged. She added, “We can think about how biology forms chiral structures and the reason the work is very exciting is we don’t know how these phenomena happen”.
According to the media, she is a co-director of the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Computational Materials Research Nucleus Lab, which is focused on the creation of extreme strength polymers, electrochemistry, and alternative energy resources. Prior to joining the RIT faculty, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University, where she was awarded the Alice H. Cook and Constance E. Cook Awards for her devotion to women’s concerns and enhancing the university’s environment for women.
