Kathryn L. Beers

Staff Employment

Manager, Circular Economy Program, NIST (2020-present)

Leader, Polymers and Complex Fluids Group, Materials Science and Engineering Division, NIST (2013-2021)

Leader, Renewable Polymers Project, Polymers Division, NIST (2008-2012)

Director, NIST Combinatorial Methods Center (NCMC), Polymers Division, NIST (2008-2009)

Assistant Director for Physical Sciences and Engineering, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President (2007-2008)

Leader, Polymer Formulations, NCMC, Polymers Division, NIST (2002-2007)

National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow, Polymers Division, NIST (2000-2002)

Research Interests

The Circular Economy, Circular Polymers, Sustainable Materials, Degradable and Renewable Polymeric Materials, Precision Macromolecular Architecture, Microreactors and Microfluidics, Advances in Polymer Synthesis and Reaction Monitoring, Macromolecular Separations, Integrated and High Throughput Measurements of Polymeric Materials

Awards and Honors

Alumni Achievement Award, Carnegie Mellon University
Arthur S. Flemming Award
Fellow, American Chemical Society
Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)
Department of Commerce Science and Technology Policy (ComSci) Fellow
Department of Commerce Silver Medal
National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship
Visiting Research Fellowship, University of Ulm, Germany
Mellon College of Science Fellowship

Memberships & Activities

Committee of Visitors, National Science Foundation Division of Materials Research, 2015, 2019
Member, American Chemical Society, 1993-present
- Advisory Board, ACS Green Chemistry Institute (GCI)
- ACS Division of Polymer Chemistry (POLY), 2014 Chair
- ACS POLY Councilor
Editorial Advisory Board, ACS MacroLetters
Associate Editor, Green Materials
Executive Committee, Center for Hierarchical Materials Design (CHiMaD), 2014-2019
Member, Materials Research Society, 2001-present
Member, Sigma Xi, 2004-present

Selected Publications

Utilizing Vapor Swelling of Surface-Initiated Polymer Brushes to Develop Quantitative Measurements of Brush Thermodynamics and Grafting Density

August 18, 2015

Author(s)

Sara V. Orski, Richard J. Sheridan, Edwin P. Chan, Kathryn L. Beers

The stimuli-responsive behavior of densely grafted polymer brushes makes them attractive for designing tunable coatings and thin film sensors, provided physical

Ultraviolet/Ozone as a tool to control grafting density in surface-initiated controlled-radical polymerizations via ablation of bromine

July 21, 2016

Author(s)

Richard J. Sheridan, Sara V. Orski, Shinichiro Muramoto, Christopher M. Stafford, Kathryn L. Beers

We used an ultraviolet-ozone (UVO) cleaner to create substrates for atom-transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) with varying surface initiator coverage. We

Modeling Enzymatic Kinetic Pathways for Ring-Opening Lactone Polymerization

August 11, 2011

Author(s)

Peter M. Johnson, Santanu S. Kundu, Kathryn Beers

A unified kinetic pathway for the enzyme catalyzed polymerization and degradation of poly(ε-caprolactone) was developed. This model tracks the complete

CONTINUOUS FLOW ENZYME-CATALYZED POLYMERIZATION IN A MICROREACTOR

March 25, 2011

Author(s)

Santanu S. Kundu, Atul S. Bhangale, William E. Wallace, Kathleen M. Flynn, Charles M. Guttman, Richard Gross, Kathryn L. Beers

Enzymes immobilized on solid supports are increasingly used for chemical transformation because the process is greener and sustainable. Here we use

Publications

Fostering a Circular Economy and Carbon Sequestration for Construction Materials Workshop Report: A Focus on Concrete

September 6, 2023

Author(s)

Kelsea Schumacher, Shawn Platt, Aron Newman, Edward Garboczi, Kathryn L. Beers, Pamela M. Chu

Highly Versatile Strategy for the Production of Telechelic Polyolefins

March 3, 2022

Author(s)

Aaron Burkey, Danyon Fischbach, Kathryn L. Beers, Charlotte Wentz, Lawrence Sita

A general and versatile synthetic strategy for producing practical quantities of a wide range of phenyl-groupterminated hetero- and homotelechelic

An Assessment of Mass Balance Accounting Methods for Polymers Workshop Report

February 7, 2022

Author(s)

Kathryn L. Beers, Kelsea Schumacher, Kalman Migler, KC Morris, Joshua D. Kneifel

N/A

MALDI TOF MS Analysis of Chan End Functonalized Polymers

October 12, 2021

Author(s)

Kathleen M. Flynn, Barry J. Bauer, Kathryn Beers, S Bencherif, H M. Byrd, Sheng Lin-Gibson

Recently, we and other research laboratories have developed methods whereby an organic species is covalently attached to the polymer forming an organic salt to

Tandem Heterogeneous Catalysis for Polyethylene Depolymerization via an Olefin-Intermediate Process

January 8, 2021

Author(s)

Kathryn L. Beers, Sara Orski, Lucas Ellis, Andrew Norman, Yuriy Rom?n-Leshkov, Gregg T. Beckham

The accumulation of plastic waste in the environment has prompted the development of new chemical recycling technologies. A recently reported approach employed

View more Publications

Staff Employment

Manager, Circular Economy Program, NIST (2020-present)

Leader, Polymers and Complex Fluids Group, Materials Science and Engineering Division, NIST (2013-2021)

Leader, Renewable Polymers Project, Polymers Division, NIST (2008-2012)

Director, NIST Combinatorial Methods Center (NCMC), Polymers Division, NIST (2008-2009)

Kathryn L. Beers (Fed)

Research Interests

Awards and Honors

Memberships & Activities

Selected Publications

Publications