Natalie Stingelin has been selected as the next chair of the School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Stingelin has been a faculty member in the College of Engineering since 2016, with joint appointments in MSE and the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. She will begin her new role August 1.

“Natalie is an innovator with a bold vision for the future. These attributes, in addition to being a world-renowned researcher and her ongoing efforts to increase diversity in engineering, make her the best choice to lead MSE,” said Raheem Beyah, dean of the College of Engineering and Southern Company Chair. “I’m excited to continue to partner with Natalie as she begins this new chapter of her Georgia Tech career.”

Stingelin is a well-regarded researcher in polymer physics, functional soft matter, organic electronics and photonics, and bioelectronics. She received the 2022 Georgia Tech Outstanding Achievement in Research Innovation Award. She serves as the director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics and is an initiative lead for the Institute for Materials.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to serve as the next chair of the School of Materials Science and Engineering,” Stingelin said. “I am very much looking forward to working closely with our students, faculty, and staff to foster and nurture an inclusive and impactful MSE community. I’m also excited to promote the School’s excellence in delivering transformational science and engineering, strengthening ties across campus with the other Schools and Colleges, and helping to revolutionize materials science education as we embrace the increasingly multidisciplinary nature of our field.”

Stingelin is a fellow of the Materials Research Society and the UK’s Royal Society of Chemistry. In 2021, she was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), an honor given to the highest level of academic inventors. The NAI recognized Stingelin’s significant contributions in polymer physics and organic electronics and photonics. This includes the advancement of novel strategies, like organic semiconductors and inorganic/organic hybrid materials, that enable processing and design of soft electronics with unique functional properties as well as her work creating innovative device architectures.

In 2021, she was selected for the French-British Prize by the French Society of Chemistry and the U.K.'s Royal Society of Chemistry. The same year, she also received a prestigious Suffrage Science award for the Engineering and Physical Sciences. She was one of 12 women chosen by their peers for outstanding scientific research, communication work, and support of women in STEM

Stingelin was awarded a Chaire Internationale Associée by the Excellence Initiative of the Université de Bordeaux in 2017, and she won the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining's Rosenhain Medal and Prize in 2014.

Stingelin’s career has included six years at the Imperial College London, as well as positions at the Philips Research Laboratories in the Netherlands and the University of Cambridge.

She succeeds Naresh Thadhani, who is stepping down as chair after 10 years and returning to the faculty. Since MSE was formed in 2010, the School has been consistently ranked among the top materials programs in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. The program is ranked fourth among undergraduate programs and seventh among graduate programs.

“I’m thankful for Naresh’s leadership and guidance in MSE. He has been instrumental in building a young program into a national leader,” Beyah said. “I’m also grateful to the MSE search advisory committee, which was led by Krista Walton and included faculty, staff, and students. This group identified and interviewed a diverse pool of candidates and ensured that MSE and its leadership team will have a seamless transition as we begin the fall semester.”