chemistry

Kathryn Beers

Kathryn Beers is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kathryn Beers rather than just read about it. In short: Kathryn L. Beers is an American polymer chemist.

Key takeaways

Kathryn Beers belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kathryn Beers to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kathryn Beers from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Kathryn L. Beers is an American polymer chemist. Beers is Leader of the Polymers and Complex Fluids group in the Materials Science and Engineering Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Her research interests include microreactors and microfluidics, advances in polymer synthesis and reaction monitoring, macromolecular separations, integrated and high throughput measurements of polymeric materials, degradable and renewable polymeric materials, and sustainable materials.

Early life and education Beers is a native of the Washington metropolitan area. She completed a B.S. in chemistry at the College of William & Mary in 1994. Her Honors College undergraduate thesis was titled The effects of deuteration of ferromagnetic properties: a study of single crystal Fe[S2CN(C2D5)2]2Cl. In 1996, she earned an M.S. in polymer science at Carnegie Mellon University. She completed a Ph.D. in chemistry at Carnegie Mellon in 2000. She worked with professor Krzysztof Matyjaszewski. Her dissertation was titled Design, synthesis and properties of comb copolymers with variable grafting density by controlled radical polymerization. From 2000 to 2002, she was a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow in the Polymers Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Career From 2002 to 2007, Beers was a research chemist and project leader in the polymer formulations at the NIST Combinatorial Methods Center (NCMC) in the Polymers Division at NIST. Beers was the Assistant Director for Physical Sciences and Engineering in the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) from 2007 to 2008. While at OSTP, Beers oversaw a portfolio including the Office of Science, Science Mission Directorate, and portions of the National Science Foundation. She worked to coordinate inter-agency and international cooperation and interaction with the physical science field. She was the director of the NIST Combinatorial Methods Center (NCMC) from 2008 to 2009. From 2008 to 2012, she was a Project Leader of the Renewable Polymers project, and Group Leader of the Sustainable Polymers Group. Since 2013, Beers serves as Group Leader of the Polymers and Complex Fluids group in the Materials Science and Engineering Division at NIST. Beers became a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in 1993. She has served as secretary of the ACS Division of Polymer Chemistry and served in the POLY Chair series from 2012 to 2017. She became a member of the Materials Research Society in 2001 and Sigma Xi in 2004. She is also a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Research Beers researches microreactors and microfluidics, advances in polymer synthesis and reaction monitoring, macromolecular separations, integrated and high throughput measurements of polymeric materials, degradable and renewable polymeric materials, and sustainable materials.

Awards and honors In 2005, Beers was awarded the Department of Commerce Silver Medal. She was a 2006 Department of Commerce Science and Technology Policy (ComSci) fellow. In 2007, she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

References

External links Kathryn Beers publications indexed by Google Scholar This article incorporates public domain material from the National Institute of Standards and Technology

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kathryn Beers

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kathryn Beers claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kathryn Beers before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kathryn Beers ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kathryn Beers

In research: Kathryn Beers appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kathryn Beers in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kathryn Beers is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century American chemists, 21st-century American chemists, 21st-century American women scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kathryn Beers outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Kathryn Beers” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Kathryn Beers in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kathryn Beers means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kathryn Beers out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kathryn Beers in simple terms?

Kathryn L. Beers is an American polymer chemist.

Why does Kathryn Beers matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kathryn Beers?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kathryn Beers.