LaShanda Korley

Korley is an internationally recognized leader in sustainable materials, plastics waste valorization, and bio-inspired engineering. An accomplished chemical engineer, she leverages her expertise in polymeric systems to study how renewable resources can serve as building blocks for new materials that match or exceed current performance requirements. Her team also explores how biological systems can inspire the design of synthetic materials with exceptional function. Dr. Korley leads the Department of Energy-funded Center for Plastics Innovation (CPI), which focuses on systems-level approaches to build a more sustainable plastics manufacturing landscape.

Before joining NYU, Dr. Korley was a Distinguished Professor of Engineering at the University of Delaware, where she co-Directed the Center for Hybrid, Active, and Responsive Materials (CHARM), a National Science Foundation (NSF) MRSEC and served as the Associate Director for the Center for Soft matter and Polymers (CRiSP). Prior to this appointment, Dr. Korley was the Climo Associate Professor of Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, where she launched an NSF-supported Partnership for International Research and Education (PIRE) program: Bio-inspired Materials and Systems.

Dr. Korley is an Associate Editor for ACS Macro Letters. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, American Physical Society, American Chemical Society (ACS), Royal Society of Chemistry, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and ACS Division of Polymer Chemistry (POLY) and Division Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE). Dr. Korley was selected for the 2023 U.S. Science Envoy Cohort by the U.S. State Department. She earned a B.S. in Chemistry & Engineering from Clark Atlanta University and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Korley completed her doctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Chemical Engineering and the Program in Polymer Science and Technology. Dr. Korley was a post-doctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University.