Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award: Alejandro L. Briseno

Sponsor: Arthur C. Cope Fund

Citation: For his outstanding accomplishments on the design and synthesis of unconventional, chemically stable polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and their charge transport properties.

Current position: associate professor of polymer science and engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Education: B.S., biology, California State University, Los Angeles; Ph.D., organic materials chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle

Briseno on what gets his creative juices flowing: “Like most scientists, we become fascinated by the unexplainable. My creative juices begin to flow when we make leaps and bounds towards understanding the observations we were previously unable to comprehend. Oftentimes, the juices flow too hard and we lose sleep. We need to be careful when this happens because it is important to rest our minds and step away in order to return with a fresh perspective.”

What his colleagues say: “Briseno is internationally recognized for developing efficient synthetic routes to achieve chemically stable oligoacenes and oligothiophenes for application in organic electronics. His research is also renowned for studies centered on crystal growth mechanism and fundamental charge transport in organic crystals and polymer thin films.”—Antonio Facchetti, Northwestern University