Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Education:
Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, 1990
B.S., Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, 1985

Career Highlights:
Schadler held a post-doctoral research position at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center from 1990-‘92 and joined the faculty at Drexel University in 1992 as an assistant professor. While at Drexel, she received a National Young Investigator Award. Schadler joined the Rensselaer faculty in 1996. She is a winner of the Bradley Staughton Teaching Award from American Society of Materials International and the American Society of Engineering Education Dow Outstanding New Faculty award for the St. Lawrence section.

A member of the National Materials Advisory Board, Schadler serves as the group’s liaison to the U.S. National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. Schadler also serves as the National Science Foundation Center for Directed Assembly of Nanostructures’ education and outreach coordinator. She is involved in curriculum reform at Rensselaer and participates in outreach and education programs for high school students and teachers, as well as in research programs for undergraduates. Her most recent project is the Molecularium(SM), a nanotechnology program at the Junior Museum in Troy, N.Y. The program uses a dome planetarium to teach children in grades kindergarten through five about the world of atoms and molecules.

Research Areas:
Schadler has a strong interest in polymer nanocomposites with both nanoparticle and nanotube fillers. The fundamental goal of her work is to understand and control the fundamental interaction of the polymer chains with the reinforcement, and to tailor the dispersion and interface properties to maximize the bulk mechanical and electrical properties. The applied goal of her work is to develop multifunctional composites with combinations of properties not achievable with traditional composites.

Selected Publications:
F.T. Fisher, A. Eitan, R. Andrews, L.S. Schadler, and L.C. Brinson, “Spectral Response and Effective Viscoelastic Properties of MWNT-Reinforced Polycarbonate,” Advanced Composites Letters, in press.

D. Ma, R.W. Siegel, J.-I. Hong, L.S. Schadler, E. Mårtensson, and C. Önneby, “Influence of Nanoparticle Surfaces on the Electrical Breakdown Strength of Nanoparticle-Filled Low-Density Polyethylene,” Journal of Materials Research, in press.

B.J. Ash, R.W. Siegel, and L.S. Schadler, “Mechanical Behavior of Alumina/Poly(methyl methacrylate) Nanocomposites,” Macromolecules, in press.

W. Ding, A. Eitan, F.T. Fisher, X. Chen, D.A. Dikin, R. Andrews, L.C. Brinson, L.S. Schadler, and R.S. Ruoff, “Direct Observation of Polymer Sheathing in Carbon Nanotube-polycarbonate Composites,” Nano Letters, 3, (11), 1593-1597, (2003).

K. Rege, N.R. Raravikar, D.-Y. Kim, L.S. Schadler, P.M. Ajayan, and J.S. Dordick, "Enzyme-Polymer-Single Walled Carbon Nanotube Composites as Biocatalytic Films," Nano Letters, 3, 829-832, (2003).

A. Eitan, K. Jiang, R. Andrews, L.S. Schadler, "Surface Modification of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes: Towards the Tailoring of the Interface in Polymer Composites," Chemistry of Materials, 15, (16), 3198-3201, (2003).

W.G. Sawyer, K.D. Fruedenberg, P. Bhimaraj, L.S. Schadler, "A Study on the Friction and Wear Behavior of PTFE Filled with Alumina Nanoparticles," Wear, 254, (5-6), 573-580, (2003)

I.J. Beyerlein, C.H. Zhou, and L.S. Schadler, "A Time Dependent Micromechanical Fiber Composite Model for Inelastic Zone Growth in Viscoelastic Matrices," International Journal of Solids and Structures, 40, 2171-2194, (2003).

K. Jiang, A. Eitan, L.S. Schadler, P.M. Ajayan, R.W. Siegel, N. Grobert, M. Mayne, M. Reyes-Reyes, H. Terrones and M. Terrones, "Selective Attachment of Gold Nanoparticles to Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotubes," Nano Letters, 3, 275-277, (2003).

J.-I. Hong, L.S. Schadler, R.W. Siegel, and E. Mårtensson, “Rescaled Electrical Properties of ZnO/ Low Density Polyethylene Nanocomposites,” Applied Physics Letters, 82, (12), 1956-1958, (2003).

Contact Information:
Linda Schadler
(518) 276-2022
schadl@rpi.edu
http://www.rpi.edu/dept/nsec/researchers_schadler.html