Anna Balazs

Balazs was born to Holocaust survivors in Hungary. Growing up, Balazs' preferred play-thing was plasticine, as it was moldable and can be set into permanent shapes. She also enjoyed entertaining herself with mechanical pencils. She was inspired by her father who was a veterinarian to go into science. Balazs received her B.A. degree with honors in Physics from Bryn Mawr College in 1975. She received her master's and PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA in 1981. During her Ph.D. she worked with George M. Whitesides, K.H. Johnson, and Robert J. Silbey. After her Ph.D., she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Brandeis University (1981-1983) in the Chemistry Department with Irving Epstein. She became a research associate at the University of Massachusetts (1984-1986) in the Polymer Science and Engineering Department with Frank Karasz, William MacKnight, and Isaac Sanchez. ==Research and career==

In 1987 she moved to the University of Pittsburgh where she became an Assistant Professor (1987-1992), an Associate Professor (1992-1999), and Bicentennial Engineering Alumni Faculty Fellow. Balazs' research combines theoretical and computational modeling of the thermodynamic and kinetic behavior of polymer blends and composites. She has worked on developing models to design regenerating polymer gels. She is the Principal Investigator of the NSF Center for Chemo-Mechanical Assembly (CCMA), established through the National Science Foundation Centers for Chemical Innovation (CCI) Program. She has held the position of visiting professor at Scripps Research Institute in Southern California, the University of Texas at Austin, and Oxford University in the UK. She has also served on the editorial board of Macromolecules,  Langmuir, Accounts of Chemical Research, Science Advances, and Soft Matter. ==Awards and achievements==

• Member of the National Academy of Engineering • Member of the National Academy of Sciences • Fellow of the American Physical Society, • Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry • Fellow of the Materials Research Society, • 2016 American Physical Society Polymer Physics Prize • 2014 American Chemical Society Langmuir Lecture Award • 2013 Mines Medal from the South Dakota School of Mines • 2003 Maurice Huggins Memorial Award of the Gordon Research Conference for outstanding contributions to Polymer Science • 1999- 2000 Chair of the American Physical Society Division of Polymer Physics in 1999–2000, • Special Creativity Prize from the National Science Foundation ==References==