UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Lauren Zarzar, professor of chemistry and of materials science and engineering at Penn State, has been named a recipient of the 2025 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), one of three Penn Staters to receive the honor, as announced by the White House on Jan. 14. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers early in their careers and is conferred annually following recommendations from federal funding agencies.
“To be named among the hundreds of remarkable scientists awarded the PECASE is humbling,” Zarzar said. “This honor is also a recognition of the invaluable contributions made by the many students, postdocs, collaborators, colleagues, program directors and mentors who have inspired and supported me throughout the years. It is also a reminder of the responsibility that we have as scientists to contribute to the advancement of knowledge and to the betterment of our society.”
Zarzar’s research focuses on dynamic materials that sense and adapt to their surroundings and are thus primed to be integral components of future technologies. She uses a multitude of platforms to explore dynamic materials and the precise chemo-mechanical coordination between them that is required to achieve a desired functionality. For example, the Zarzar group studies the properties and motion of oil-in-water-like droplets that can be applied to the development of new fluid materials that are reconfigurable or stimuli-responsive, like those needed for pollutant removal or medical treatments. The team also is investigating reflective microscale-textured materials that generate unique optical properties, including structural color. Additionally, they have developed laser methods to rapidly create and pattern solid composites, including metals, metal oxides and carbon, for applications in sensors and catalysis.
“Lauren is a truly exceptional scholar,” said Mary Beth Williams, acting dean of the Eberly College of Science. “She has already demonstrated leadership and innovation, and her work has far-reaching implications in science and technology. Her creative science and tenacious pursuit of solving real-world challenges with cutting edge chemistry achieve our core college research missions of innovation and impact.”
Nominated by the Army Research Office, Zarzar is one of about 400 early-career scientists and engineers nationwide selected for this prestigious recognition this year. Established in 1996, PECASE celebrates these individuals for their outstanding promise of leadership and groundbreaking contributions to science and technology.
“I am pleased to share in congratulating Lauren for this tremendous accomplishment and recognition for her hard work,” said Ken Knappenberger, head of the Department of Chemistry. “Our faculty are leaders in their fields and at Penn State, and Lauren is among a wonderful cohort of early career chemists leading both basic and translational, multidisciplinary discoveries.”
Zarzar’s previous achievements include receiving the Simons Foundation Pivot Fellowship, a Penn State Distinguished Faculty Mentoring Award, the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the Marion Milligan Mason Award for Women in the Chemical Sciences from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in chemistry, the Rustum and Della Roy Innovation in Materials Research Award from the Penn State Materials Research Institute, a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, the Unilever Award from the Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry of the American Chemical Society, and the 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award.
Prior to joining the faculty at Penn State, Zarzar was a postdoctoral researcher in chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2013 to 2016. She earned a doctoral degree in chemistry at Harvard University in 2013 and bachelor's degrees in chemistry and in economics at the University of Pennsylvania in 2008.