Ulrich Wiesner studied Chemistry in Mainz, Germany, and Irvine, California. He gained his Ph.D. in 1991 with work at the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P), Mainz, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the E.S.P.C.I. in Paris, France until 1993. After his Habilitation with work at the MPI-P in Mainz in 1998, he joined the Cornell MS&E faculty in 1999 as a tenured associate professor. He became full professor in 2005 and since 2008 is the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Engineering. He works at the interface between polymer science and solid-state chemistry/physics with the goal of generating novel hierarchical and multifunctional hybrid materials. He is the co-founder of Elucida Oncology, Inc., working on translating theranostic optical nanoparticles into the clinic, and Terapore Technologies, Inc., with the goal to bring block copolymer self-assembly based ultrafiltration membranes to the market. He is the recipient of multiple awards including the Carl Duisberg Memorial Award of the German Chemical Society and the Arthur K. Doolittle Award of the American Chemical Society.
Contact Information:
Prof. Ulrich Wiesner
330 Bard Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
Phone: (607) 255-3487
Fax: (607) 255-2365
Student Offices:
304 Tang Hall
(607) 255-5547
252 Duffield Hall
(607) 254-8669
Ali Yigit Kozbek - ayk35@cornell.edu - 252 Duffield
Ali Yigit Kozbek is from Aydin, Turkey and earned his B.S. in Material Science and Nanotechnology Engineering at the TOBB University of Economics & Technology. He joined the group in Fall 2022 as a PhD student in the Materials Science & Engineering Department and is studying core-shell silica nanoparticles for theranostic applications.
Rachel Matthews - rcm334@cornell.edu - 252 Duffield
Rachel Matthews is from Damascus, Maryland and earned her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She joined the group in Fall 2023 as a PhD student in the Biomedical Engineering department and is working on therapeutic applications of core-shell silica nanoparticles.
Haomiao Zhang - hz692@Cornell.edu - 304 Tang
Haomiao Zhang is from Hubei province, China and earned his B.S. and M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering in Zhejiang University. He joined the group in Fall 2024 as a PhD student in the Materials Science & Engineering Department and is studying block copolymer and its applications.
Haoran Wang - hw793@cornell.edu - 304 Tang
Haoran Wang is from Baotou, China and earned his B.S. in Applied Chemistry at Wuhan University. He joined the Wiesner group in Fall 2024 as a PhD student in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department and is working on the synthesis of block copolymers.
Erik Oldre - eno23@cornell.edu - 304 Tang
Erik Oldre is from North Carolina and earned his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He joined the Wiesner Group in Fall 2025 as a Ph.D. student in the Materials Science & Engineering Department, and he is currently focusing on creating chiral quantum materials through block copolymer self-assembly.
Somya Jain - sj745@cornell.edu - 304 Tang
Somya Jain is from Haryana, India, and received her B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. She earned her M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering at Cornell in 2025 and continued at Cornell for her Ph.D., also in Materials Science and Engineering. She joined the Wiesner Group as a Ph.D. student in Spring 2026 and is now working on creating multicomponent superlattices through block copolymer self-assembly.
Yurui Xu - yx678@cornell.edu - 304 Tang
Yurui Xu is from Jiangsu province, China, and earned his B.Eng. in New Energy Materials and Devices from Soochow University. He joined the group in Fall 2025 as an M.S. student in the Materials Science & Engineering Department and is studying photopolymerization-based 3D printing