Hsiao receives AAAS Marion Milligan Mason Award

Dr. Lilian Hsiao, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at North Carolina State University, has received the 2019 Marion Milligan Mason Award for Women in the Chemical Sciences.

Hsiao is one of only five winners of the 2019 award, given by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

First awarded in 2015 and funded by the Marion Milligan Mason Fund, the award is designed to kickstart the research efforts of early-career women researchers in the chemical sciences. The 2019 awardees have made extraordinary contributions through their research programs and demonstrate a commitment to move their fields forward.

Hsiao’s research interests are in the areas of soft materials and complex fluids ­– specifically on the use of shaped colloids and functionalized polymer surfaces. She specializes in using microscopy and rheology to identify the frameworks used to engineer the mechanical properties of soft surfaces.

She holds a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, both in chemical engineering.

Other 2019 winners are:

• Dr. Vivian Ferry, assistant professor at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota.
• Dr. Susan Fullerton, assistant professor of chemical and petroleum engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.
• Dr. Heather Kulik, assistant professor of chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
• Dr. Corinna Schindler, assistant professor of Chemistry in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts at the University of Michigan.

The award was made possible by a $2.2 million bequest to AAAS by chemist and long-time AAAS member, Marion Tuttle Milligan Mason, who sought to support the advancement of women in the chemical sciences and to honor her family’s commitment to higher education for women. The Marion Milligan Mason Fund provides grants of $50,000 every other year to women researchers engaged in basic research in the chemical sciences. In addition to research funding, the program provides leadership development and mentoring opportunities.

Applications for the 2021 Awards will open in Fall 2019. For more information regarding the award, visit https://www.aaas.org/programs/marion-milligan-mason-award.