Professor Ting Xu received a M.S in Polymer Physics from Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science in July 1999 before she came to U.S. She received a Ph.D from the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Massachusetts under the guidance of Professor Thomas P. Russell in 2004. Her thesis work centered on controlling nanostructures in diblock copolymer thin films using external fields (e.g electric, surface, shear and solvent fields). Dr. Xu currently holds a joint postdoctoral appointment in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania and the Cold Neutrons for Biology and Technology (CNBT) Partnership Program at NIST. Dr. Xu’s current research focuses on the design, synthesis, and characterization of de novo designed peptides (artificial proteins) that will serve as building blocks for functional biomaterials. Her future research interests are to fundamentally understand the hierarchical self-assembly of complex systems involving artificial proteins, block copolymers and nanoparticles and apply it toward generating functional materials exhibiting novel electronic, photonic and biological properties. Dr. Xu will join the MSE faculty on a full-time basis in January 2007.