The Meyer Research Group

Research in the Meyer Group is a collaborative effort that involves faculty, graduate students and undergraduates. We actively seek collaborations with other research groups and work to address fundamental questions in polymer chemistry and materials science.

room 1008 CSC
email: tmeyer@pitt.edu
phone: 412-625-8635

Tara Meyer, Group Leader

B.S. Grinnell College, 1986
Ph.D. University of Iowa, 1991
Postdoctoral, University of Iowa 1991-2; UC Berkeley 1992-1994

University of Pittsburgh, 1994-Present
Dept. of Chemistry and McGowan Center for Regenerative Medicine

Bio: Tara Y. Meyer received her B.A. from Grinnell College in 1991 and her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1991. Her doctoral thesis, under the supervision of Prof. Louis Messerle, focused on the reactivity of early transition metal acyl complexes. She carried out postdoctoral work at both the University of Iowa (1991-2) under the supervision of Prof. Richard F. Jordan and at the University of California, Berkeley (1992-4) under the joint supervision of Prof. Robert G. Bergman and Bruce M. Novak. Dr. Meyer joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, Department of Chemistry in 1994 and is a member of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Her work has been recognized by both CAREER and Sloan Foundation Awards and a sabbatical stay at MIT (2003) was supported by an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award. Dr. Meyer’s research focuses on synthesis and structure/function studies on repeating sequence copolymers and on the design of stimuli responsive materials.

Current Graduate Students

email:
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Current Projects

Bio:

email: ets74@pitt.edu
phone:

Ethan Sun

Current Projects:

The Effects of Backbone Sequence Variation on Degradation in Bottle Brush Copolymers

Bio: I began my undergraduate studies on a pre-med track before discovering a passion for chemistry. In the Meyer Group, my research focuses on designing bottle brush copolymers with sequenced backbones and probing how their architecture governs material behavior. In particular, I explore how features such as side-chain distribution influence the degradation of polymers bearing biodegradable polyester side chains.