Craig Hawker

Who is Craig Hawker?

Craig J. Hawker is a chemist. His research has focused on the interface between organic and polymer chemistry with emphasis on the design, synthesis, and application of well-defined macromolecular structures in biotechnology, microelectronics and surface science. Hawker holds more than 45 U.S. patents and has co-authored over 300 papers in the areas of nanotechnology, materials science and chemistry. He is listed as one of the Top 100 most cited chemists worldwide over the decade 1992–2002. Hawker is currently the Director of the Materials Research Laboratory and the Alan and Ruth Heeger Professor of Interdisciplinary Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Hawker received his B.Sc. degree and University Medal in chemistry from the University of Queensland in 1984 and a Ph.D. in bioorganic chemistry from the University of Cambridge in 1988 under the supervision of Professor Sir Alan R. Battersby. Jumping into the world of polymer chemistry, he undertook a post-doctoral fellowship with Professor Jean Fréchet at Cornell University from 1988 to 1990 and then returned to the University of Queensland as a Queen Elizabeth II Fellow from 1991 to 1993. In 1993 he joined the IBM Almaden Research Center and was recently awarded the 2000 Young Scientists Award from IUPAC, the 2001 Carl S. Marvel Award in Creative Polymer Science by the American Chemical Society, and the 2003 Cooperative Research Award from the American Chemical Society with Professor Tom Russell. He was elected fellow of the Royal Society on May 20, 2010.