Christine Luscombe

Her current research focuses on the synthesis of semiconducting polymers for organic electronics and has published >100 papers in this area of research.

Areas of expertise: photovoltaics (solar cells), green chemistry, organic electronics, flexible/stretchable electronics, microplastics, polymers

Selected media coverage:

The Rise of Molecular Engineering and Science - YouTube/The University of Washington
UW Clean Energy Institute Overview - YouTube/UW Clean Energy Institute
University of Washington Materials Science and Engineering - YouTube/The University of Washington
I serve as the President of the IUPAC Polymer Division so I collate videos that are specifically about polymer science on this channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKg5DzBtxwnB45S3PRcX_qw

Professional experience

Materials Science and Engineering Department, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; Assistant Professor 2006-2011, Associate Professor 2011-2017, Robert J. Campbell Professor 2017-2021, Interim Chair 2020-2021
Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; Adjunct Associate Professor 2013-2017, Adjunct Professor 2017-2020, Professor 2020-2021

Awards

Elected member of Washington State Academy of Sciences, 2020
UW College of Engineering Faculty Award: Research, 2019
Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, 2016, Royal Society of Chemistry
Kavli Fellow, 2015, The National Academy of Sciences

Selected publications (Refer to Google Scholar for complete publication list)

Martinelli, J. C.; Phan, S.; Luscombe, C. K.; Padilla-Gamino, J. L "Low incidence of microplastic contaminants in Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas Thunberg) from the Salish Sea, USA" Sci. Total Environ., 2020, 715, 136826.
Sommerville, P. J. W.; Li, Y.; Dong, B. X.; Zhang, Y.; Onorato, J. W.; Tatum, W. K.; Balzer, A. H.; Stingelin, N. S.; Patel, S. N.; Nealey, P. F.; Luscombe, C. K. "Elucidating the Influence of Side-Chain Circular Distribution on the Crack Onset Strain and Hole Mobility of Near-Amorphous Indacenodithiophene Copolymers" Macromolecules, 2020, 53, 7511-7518.
Bischak, C. G.; Flagg, L. Q.; Yan, K.; Rehman, T.; Davies, D. W.; Quezada, R. J.; Onorato, J. W.; Luscombe, C. K.; Diao, Y.; Li, C.-Z.; Ginger, D. S. "A Reversible Structural Phase Transition by Electrochemically-Driven Ion Injection into a Conjugated Polymer" J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2020, 142, 7434-7442.
Huang, Y.; Luscombe, C. K. "Towards green synthesis and processing of organic solar cells" The Chemical Record, 2019, 19, 1039
Mazzio, K.; Luscombe, C. K. "The Future of Organic Photovoltaics" Chem. Soc. Rev., 2015, 44, 78.
Okamoto, K.; Zhang, J.; Housekeeper, J.; Marder, S.; Luscombe, C. K. "C–H Arylation Reaction: Atom Efficient, and Greener Syntheses of π-conjugated Small- and Macromolecules for Organic Electronic Materials" Macromolecules, 2013, 46, 8059.
Okamoto, K.; Luscombe, C. K. “Controlled polymerizations for the synthesis of semiconducting conjugated polymers” Polym. Chem. 2011, 2, 2424.
Bronstein, H. A.; Luscombe, C. K. "Externally initiated regioregular P3HT with controlled molecular weight and narrow polydispersity." J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131, 12894.