Kofinas Lab

Kofinas Lab
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Welcome to the  Functional Macromolecular Laboratory
The Functional Macromolecular Laboratory at the University of Maryland, College Park, performs research on functional polymers for a variety of technological fields ranging from medicine and pharmaceutics to energy storage and microelectronics. We work in the synthesis and structure-properties characterization of complex polymer architectures, focusing on the determination of their structure function and properties. Present problems of interest include: polymer electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries, and translational sprayable polymers for medical applications.
In the News
Check out updates from our lab below or in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department
here
2026
Robert
's publication accepted by Advanced Healthcare Materials
23
/202
Congratulations to Robert f
or his
recent publication
on sprayable polymer blends developed to prevent the formation of postoperative abdominal adhesions.
Click
here
to read the article.
2025
Patricia
presents at AIChE Fall 2025
11
/2025
Congratulations to
Patricia
for presenting h
er
oral talk titled "Advancing Lithium-Ion Batteries: Gel Polymer Electrolytes for Safety and Scalability" at the A
IChE
Fall 2025 annual conference!
Robert presents at AIChE Fall 2025
11/5/2025
Congratulations to Robert for presenting his oral talk titled "Sprayable Polymer Blends for the Prevention of Surgical Adhesions" at the AIChE Fall 2025 annual conference!
Teja presents at AIChE Fall 2025
11/5/2025
Congratulations to Teja for presenting his oral talk titled "
Dual-Layer Polymeric Films for the Prevention of Postoperative Adhesions in Laparoscopic Surgeries
" at the AIChE Fall 2025 annual conference!
Teja
presents at
iSMIT
2025
10
10
/2025
Congratulations to
Teja
for presenting his
poster
titled "
Crosslinked Polymer Films for the Prevention of Postoperative Adhesions in Laparoscopic Surgeries
" at the
iSMIT
2025 annual conference!
Robert presents at iSMIT 2025
10/10/2025
Congratulations to Robert for presenting his poster titled "Solution blow-spun polymer blends for prevention of postoperative surgical adhesions" at the iSMIT 2025 annual conference!
Teja Proposes! Congrats!
9/3/2025
Teja successfully defended his proposal on Dual-Layer Crosslinked Films for the Prevention of Postoperative Adhesions in Laparoscopic Surgeries. Congrats, Teja!
Dr. Chris Johnson
joins the lab!
26
/2025
Welcome to
Dr. Chris Johnson
, a new P
ost-doctoral fellow!
He
hails
from
the University of Pennslyvania
after earning a
Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering
in 202
. We are glad to have you on board!
Teja
presents at ACS Fall 2025
8/2
/2025
Congratulations to
Teja
for presenting his oral talk titled "Crosslinked dual-layer polymer films for the prevention of postoperative adhesions in laparoscopic surgeries" at the ACS Fall 2025 annual conference!
Ebenezer
presents at ACS Fall 2025
8/
20
/2025
Congratulations to
Ebenezer
for presenting h
is
oral talk titled "Lithium-Ion battery electrolytes with high-energy and low temperature performance" at the ACS Fall 2025 annual conference!
Patricia presents at ACS Fall 2025
8/
20
/2
25
Congratulations to Patricia for presenting her oral talk titled "Next-generation lithium-Ion batteries: Safety, scalability, and high-energy" at the ACS Fall 2025 annual conference!
Robert presents at ACS Fall 2025
8/19/2025
Congratulations to Robert for presenting his oral talk titled "Solution blow-spun polymer blends for prevention of postoperative surgical adhesions" at the ACS Fall 2025 annual conference!
Undergraduate Poster Presenters at ACS!
8/18/2025
Philip, Adam, and Jacob all presented posters at the ACS Fall 2025 annual conference. Congratulations to our undergraduates!
IChE
Presentations Accepted
5/2
20
25
Robert, Teja,
and Patricia
be presenting oral talks. We are very excited to share our work with A
IChE
attendees! Stay tuned for presentation times and locations
ACS
Presentations Accepted
28
/202
Robert
, Teja, Patricia, and Ebenezer will be presenting oral talks.
We are very excited to share our work with
ACS
attendees! Stay tuned for presentation times and locations.
Robert
Proposes! Congrats!
16
/202
Robert
successfully defended h
is
proposal on S
prayable Polymer Blends for Prevention of Post-operative Thoracic Adhesions
. Congrats,
Robert
Scott Bernota joins the lab!
1/19/2025
Welcome to Scott Bernota, a Ph.D. student who has completed his first year in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department. He comes from Towson University after earning a Bachelors in Chemistry in 2024. We are glad to have you on board!
2024
Robert presents at BMES 2024
10/26/2024
Congratulations to Robert for presenting his oral talk titled "Sprayable Polymer for the Prevention of Post-Operative Abdominal Adhesions" at the BMES 2024 annual conference!
Teja presents a poster at BMES 2024
10/24/2024
Congratulations to Teja for presenting his poster titled "Biodegradable films for the prevention of post-operative adhesions in laparoscopic surgeries" at the BMES 2024 annual conference!
Robert and Teja's publication accepted to Biomedical Materials!
9/2/2024
Congratulations to Robert and Teja for their recent publication in Biomedical Materials and Devices! Here they review the research on postoperative adhesions looking into the mechanisms of formation, therapeutics, and preventative materials. Click
here
to read the article.
BMES Presentations Accepted
7/17/2024
Robert will be presenting an oral talk. Teja will also be giving a poster presentation. We are very excited to share our work with BMES attendees! Stay tuned for presentation times and locations.
Patricia Proposes! Congrats!
8/21/2024
Patricia's successfully defended her proposal on Safe and Sustainable Electrolytes for Lithium-Ion Batteries. Congrats, Patricia!
Robert wins campus-level 3-minute thesis competition! Congrats!
4/19/2024
After winning the engineering-level finals, Robert advanced to the campus-level 3-minute thesis competition and was declared a winner with his talk "Surgical Adhesions: The Medical Complication You've Never Heard Of"! Congratulations, Robert!
Becca has paper accepted! Congrats!
2/20/2024
Becca's work on permalloy nanoparticles for use in syringe printable inductors was recently accepted
here
in the Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials. Congrats, Becca!
Ebenezer Sam joins the lab!
1/20/2024
Welcome to Ebenezer Sam, a PhD student who has completed his first year in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department. He comes from Jiangsu University after earning a Masters in Chemical Engineering in 2021. We are glad to have you on board!
2023
Becca Graduates, Receives Ph.D.
5/23/2023
Becca successfully defended her dissertation, titled "Magnetic Nanoparticle Inks for Syringe Printable Inductors." Best of luck, Dr. Fedderwitz!!!
Kyle Graduates, Receives Ph.D.
5/17/2023
Kyle successfully defended his dissertation, titled "​Composition-Function Analyses and Design of Plasticized Solid Polymer Electrolytes for Lithium-ion Batteries." Best of luck, Dr. Ludwig!!!
2022
Mete receives F31 award from NIH and has paper accepted
6/15/2022
​Mete was recently awarded the prestigious Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Fellowship (F31) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The purpose of the F31 Fellowship award is to enable promising predoctoral students to obtain individualized, mentored research training from outstanding faculty sponsors while conducting dissertation research in scientific health-related fields relevant to the missions of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers. Mete's paper on this work for prevention of post-operative scar tissue was also accepted in B
ioengineering and Translational Medicine
. Congrats Mete!
Kofinas Lab Receives a NIH R01 Research Grant from NIH!
6/1/2022
The Kofinas Lab was
awarded
a four-year, $1.6M National Institute of Health (NIH) grant on prevention of post-operative scar tissue. This work is done in collaboration with Dr. Anthony Sandler, Senior Vice President and Surgeon-in-Chief of the Joseph E. Robert Jr., Center for Surgical Care at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C. Congrats
to the team!!!
2020
Leo, John, and Matt have papers accepted! Congrats!
4/11/2020
Leo's paper on structurally colored films was accepted for publication in Langmuir. Congrats to Leo (now at the ADA), Artemis (now at BU), Bianca, Lily, and Omar! John's paper on a pressure-sensitive tissue adhesive was accepted for publication in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. Congrats to John (now at MIT), Shadden, Massi, and Omar! Matt's paper on ionic liquid solid polymer electrolytes was accepted for publication in Electrochmica Acta. Congrats to Matt, Kyle, and Jesse! Check out our Publications page for some more published science!
Jesse Matthews Named 2020 Goldwater Scholar. Congrats Jesse!
3/30/2020
Undergraduate
Jesse Matthews
(CHBE) was recently awarded the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation for his collaborative work with Matt and Kyle on developing safer lithium ion batteries with solid polymer electrolytes, as well as his educational outreach efforts in the university’s ESTEEM (Engineering Science and Technology to Energize and Expand Young Minds) program. We're so proud of you, congrats Jesse!
2019
Matt Graduates, Receives Ph.D.
12/11/2019
Matt successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis, titled "Improving the Performance of Solid Polymer Electrolytes for Lithium Batteries via Plasticization with Aqueous Salt or Ionic Liquid". Best of luck Dr. Widstrom!
Jesse Presents Poster at AIChE Annual Meeting,
Receives
First Place!
11/11/2019
Jesse presents his poster, titled "Electrochemical and Thermal Analysis of an Ionic Liquid Based Solid Polymer Electrolyte", and places first in his division at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida! Congrats Jesse!
2018
John Receives F31 Award from NIH
9/26/2018
John was recently awarded the prestigious Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Fellowship (F31) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The purpose of the F31 Fellowship award is to enable promising predoctoral students to obtain individualized, mentored research training from outstanding faculty sponsors while conducting dissertation research in scientific health-related fields relevant to the missions of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers. Congratulations John!
New Project with Saft Approved
9/20/2018
Our group, along with fellow collaborators from the Rubloff group at UMD, were approved to start a new project sponsored by Saft developing thin-film polymer electrolytes for high-voltage applications. Saft, who was recently acquired by French oil company Total, is a world leader in battery manufacturing. While headquartered in Bordeaux, France, the company maintains a research facility nearby in Cockeysville, MD. We look forward to this exciting collaboration!
John and Leo Accepted to Present at MRS Boston '18
9/7/2018
John will give a talk titled "Adhesive Polymer Composite Wound Dressings—Silver and Silica for Antimicrobial and Hemostatic Applications." Leo will give a talk titled "An Investigation on the Assembly of Particles in a Structurally Colored Protease-Responsive Particle Hydrogel—The Role of Particle Size and Charge." If you will be at MRS, stop by their talks to learn more about their research!
Undergraduate Student Lily Granzow Featured by Mtech
9/5/2018
One of our undergraduate students, Lily Granzow, was recently featured in an Entrepreneurship & Innovation Program (EIP) student profile on the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) website. We're proud of Lily's hard work!
Joey Hunter Graduates, Receives Masters
4/20/2018
Congratulations to Joey for successfully defending his Masters thesis, titled "Developing an
in situ
sprayable bioscaffold with antimicrobial properties as an emergency burn wound dressing." We wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors!
Congratulations to Mert Vural on his most recent publication!
4/4/2018
Congrats to Dr. Mert Vural and Dr. Adam Behrens on their last publication for their PhD work.  Follow the link below to read the manuscript in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. Title:
Spray Processed Composites with High Conductivity and Elasticity
Rebecca Fedderwitz Joins the Lab!
4/4/2018
Material Science and Engineering PhD student Becca joins the FML group. She comes to us from the University of Florida.  She will be working on magnetodielectric polymer nanocomposites. We are happy to have her in the group!
2017
FML Lab Goes to EMRS
6/26/2017
The FML Lab recently traveled to Strasbourg, France to attend the European Materials Research Society's 2017 Spring Meeting in May. Matt, John, and Leo each presented their work at the conference and took some time to explore the surrounding area.
Kyle Ludwig Joins the Lab!
6/25/2017
Welcome to Kyle Ludwig, a PhD student who has completed his first year in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department. He received his B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of Maryland College Park in 2015. Shortly after completing his bachelors, he worked at the US Federal Drug Administration as a fellow in the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for a year, before joining the PhD program in August 2016. We are glad to have you on board!
FML Alum Dr. Adam Behrens Named Forbes "30 Under 30: Healthcare" List
Congratulations to Adam! To read more about this achievement, read
here
. Click
here
Adam's biography on the
Forbes
website.
Joseph Hunter Joins the Lab!
2/9/2017
1st year Joseph Hunter joins the lab. He completed his undergraduate education at University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2016 and holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Glad to have you on board!
Leo, Matt, and John Successfully Defend Their Proposals!
2/9/2017
Congratulations to our senior graduate students who have defended their proposals last semester!
2016
John receives NSF GRFP Honorable Mention
4/16/2016
John L. Daristotle received Honorable Mention for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Congrats to John!
Mert Graduates!
4/15/2016
Mert successfully defended his PhD thesis and has accepted a post-doc position at Penn State University! Best of luck Dr. Vural!
Mert leads paper in Journal of Materials Chemistry C!
3/15/2016
Along with our collaborators, we published our work on stretchable magnetic composites. Mert was the lead author on the publication. To access the article, click
here
Patent awarded!
2/15/2016
Last month, Dr. Kofinas was awarded U.S. patent 9,252,456 B2 for the solid battery electrolyte, along with a previous lab member,
Ayan Ghosh (
Ph.D., ChBE ’09).
Congrats to everyone's whose efforts have made this project possible!
​The UMD BioE department story can be found
here
2015
Adam leads new paper in Advanced Materials
11/11/2015
Congratulations to Dr. Adam Behrens (now at the Langer Lab) who led a publication in
Advanced Materials
. Adams's work describes a nanofiber-based surgical sealant with body temperature-mediated adhesion. Congratulations to Adam and co-authors Mike Sikorski and John Daristotle! The paper can be found
here
Leo awarded 1st Place in BioE Track at  SACNAS National Meeting
11/9/2015
Two weeks ago, Leo gave an oral presentation on his and Omar's work regarding enzyme detection through structural color at the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) National Meeting. He was awarded 1st place in the Bioengineering track. Congrats Leo! To read more about SACNAS, click
here
Mete awarded ASPIRE Student Research Award!
10/31/2015
Mete was selected for the UMD ASPIRE award for his work with polymer electrolytes! Congratulations Mete!
MRS Presentations Accepted!
10/31/2015
Three FML members will be presenting at the upcoming Fall MRS meeting! Mert will be presenting an oral and poster presentation. Matt and Leo(in place of Omar) will also be giving an oral presentation. We are very excited to share our work with MRS attendees!
Leo gets 2nd place in Technical Competition
8/11/2015
Leo presented at the GEM Consortium National Meeting in Boston last week and received 2nd place! Congrats to Leo! To learn more about GEM, click
here
Omar's publication was accepted to ACS Nano!
7/24/2015
Congratulations to Dr. Omar Ayyub for his recent publication in ACS Nano! Here Omar describes a protease responsive hydrogel nanocomposite that changes color and increases in mechanical process upon peptide cleavage.
Click
here
to read the article.
Adam Successfully Defends His PhD and Receives Dissertation Award!
5/2/2015
This week Adam presented (to a packed room!) his dissertation regarding hemostatic hydrogel microparticles and
in situ
blow-spun polymer fibers as surgical sealants. He was successful in defending his thesis and will soon be joining the Langer Lab in MIT! Also, Adam competed in the James Clark School of Engineering Ph.D Dissertation competition and received first place! Way to go Dr. Behrens!
Leo Selected for NSF GRFP
4/6/2015
Leo was awarded the prestigious
NSF Graduate Student Fellowship
. Congrats Leo!
John and Leo Join the lab!
4/6/2015
March 2015
- 1st year Ph.D. students, John Daristotle (B.S. Chemical Engineering University of Maryland College Park) and Leo Torres (B.S. Bioengineering University of California, Riverside) will be joining the Functional Macromolecular Laboratory. Glad to have them on board!
Mert Admitted into Future Faculty Program
4/6/2015
December 2014
- Congratulations to Mert for getting into the
Future Faculty Program
at UMD!
Manuscript Published in ACS Nano
4/6/2015
December 2014
- Mert and Adam's work on Sprayable Elastic Conductors Based on Block Copolymer Silver Nanoparticle Composites was published in ACS Nano! Congrats to both of them! To check out their work go
here
Manuscript Published in Polymer
4/6/2015
November 2014
- Omar's work was publish in Polymer! Congrats to Omar!
Adam Receives NIH F31 Fellowship
4/6/2015
September 2014
- Adam was awarded the prestigious
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award
. Way to go Adam!
Adam Receives 2014 BIOE Graduate Student Award
4/6/2015
September 2014
- Adam Receives 2014 BIOE Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award. Congrats
Omar Starts His Post-Doc Position
4/6/2015
August 2014
- Omar Starts Postdoc at Children's National Medical Center
Omar defends Ph.D. Thesis!
4/6/2015
June 2014
- Omar defends Ph.D Thesis on Functional Polymers for Biosensing Applications. Congrats to Omar!
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