Anastasia Elias

Area of Study / Keywords

Engineering Faculty Executive Additive Manufacturing Composites Conductive Composites Degradable Polymers Graphenic Nanomaterials Microfabrication Nanofabrication Nanomaterials Optics Polymers Polymer Characterization Responsive Materials Sensors

About

Dr. Anastasia Elias joined the department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Alberta in 2008, and is currently a Professor and Associate Dean, Research Strategy. She holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering (U of A, 2007) and a BSc in Engineering Physics (U of A, 2002). During her graduate studies she was a visiting researcher at the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (2003-2006), where she conducted research in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry. From 2007-2008 she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Materials and Interfacial Chemistry Group at the NRC National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) in Edmonton. From 2016-2017 she was a visiting scientist at the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research, Dresden, Germany. Dr. Elias serves on the Editorial Board of PLOS One, and on the Editorial Advisory Board of Scientific Reports (A Nature Publication). Dr. Elias’ work is recognized by numerous awards, including the APEGA Early Accomplishment Award, NSERC Discovery Accelerator, and a Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers. She held the University of Alberta McCalla Professorship from 2017-2018.

Research

The overall purpose of Dr. Elias’ research is to develop functional polymers, nanomaterials and nanomaterial-polymer composites. She develops processing, patterning, and chemical-modification techniques to control and manipulate the surface and bulk properties of soft materials. Her group studies polymer-nanoparticle composites, graphenic nanomaterials, degradable biopolymers, and hydrogels. 

A key focus of Dr. Elias' work is on stimulus-responsive materials, which are materials that can sense a change in their surroundings, and undergo a change in properties. As such she is developing responsive materials which undergo both reversible and irreversible transitions in response to stimuli including temperature, pH, humidity, and even bacteria. These materials can undergo changes in optical, electronic, or other properties when the stimulus of interest is detected. Stimulus-responsive materials can be used in in a variety of sensor applications, from wearable biomedical devices to monitoring of food freshness and safety. 

Another of Dr. Elias’ core competencies is the development of new techniques for patterning materials on the micro- and nanoscale for the manufacturing of microscaled devices. She further studies how processing conditions affects the properties of the resulting materials, including thin films and composites, as these properties can differ significantly from those of bulk materials. Furthermore, techniques that can be used on bulk materials cannot also be used for materials with smaller dimensions. Her group has recently demonstrated an optical-based technique for monitoring the stability and degradation of thin film polymer films.