After earning his B.S. and M.S. from the Chemistry Department at Korea University (Seoul, Korea), Professor S. Michael Yu, Ph.D. worked with Prof. David Tirrell at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where he received his Ph.D. in polymer science and engineering. Following an NIH post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Samuel Gellman’s lab), he joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University where he has been since 2001.
Dr. Yu’s research interests lie in the synthesis, characterization, and application of organic materials that are either inspired by, or derived from, biological systems. In particular, his group has focused on applying principles of protein folding and assembly to development of a wide variety of materials that range from piezoelectric materials and nanoparticle assembly to tissue engineering scaffolds and diagnostic molecules. Dr. Yu is a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) and an NSF CAREER award.