Penn State professor Lauren Zarzar has been named a recipient of the 2026 Schmidt Science Polymath Award.

Zarzar, a professor of chemistry and materials science and engineering, is one of the eight researchers selected this year from a pool of more than 150 applicants, according to Penn State.

The award supports mid-career scientists who are branching into new areas of research and experimenting with different methods. This year’s recipients bring the Polymaths community to 43 researchers from 31 institutions across nine countries.

Zarzar studies materials that can sense and adapt to their surroundings.

Her research group examines the properties and movement of droplets similar to oil droplets in water. That work could help develop materials that change in response to their environments, with potential uses in pollutant removal and medical treatments.

“I’m deeply honored to receive the Schmidt Science Polymath Award,” Zarzar said in a university release.

She said the award will allow her to pursue new research directions in the coming years.

Zarzar has also received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, a Simons Foundation Pivor Fellowship, and a Penn State Distinguished Faculty Mentoring Award, among other honors.

Before joining Penn State, Zarzar was a postdoctoral researcher in chemistry at MIT from 2013 to 2016.

She earned a doctorate in chemistry from Harvard in 2013 and bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and economics from UPenn in 2008.

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