astronomy

Rodney Priestley

Rodney Priestley is a astronomy 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 Rodney Priestley rather than just read about it. In short: Rodney Dewayne Priestley (born 1979) is an American chemical engineer and professor at Princeton University. His research considers the phase transitions of polymers and their application in electronic devices and healthcare.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Rodney Dewayne Priestley (born 1979) is an American chemical engineer and professor at Princeton University. His research considers the phase transitions of polymers and their application in electronic devices and healthcare. In 2020 he was made the Princeton University Vice Dean of Innovation. He was named dean of The Graduate School effective June 1, 2022.

Early life and education Priestley grew up watching documentaries on National Geographic. He originally considered studying marine biology or geology. During high school he became increasingly interested in chemistry. Priestley eventually studied chemical engineering at Texas Tech University and graduated in 2003, where he competed in long jump. As part of a Research Experiences for Undergraduates programme at the University of Connecticut Priestley first encountered polymers, in the context of a project to develop artificial bone materials. He completed his doctoral degree at Northwestern University, where he studied nanoscale confinement of polymers. In particular, Priestley made use of fluorescence and dielectric spectroscopy to investigate how confinement and interfacial effects impacted the glass transition temperature and physical ageing of polymers. Priestley was a postdoctoral fellow at the Ecole Superieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris (ESPCI).

Research and career In 2009 Priestley returned to the United States and joined the faculty at Princeton University. At Princeton, Priestley studies the nanoscale properties of materials, and how to tune these for novel device applications. He has continued to study the glass transition temperatures of polymers, with a focus on the controlled formation of thin films and nanocolloids. Priestley has studied the transition temperatures of substances that are composed of two or more polymers, attaching fluorescent reporting tags to the different components and using the brightness of the tag to infer whether the polymer is in a glassy or rubbery phase. As part of this work, Priestley studied plexiglas, a composite system of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(butyl methacrylate) (PBMA) that is found in coronary stents and paints. He combines experimental studies with computational investigations to better understand the distribution of the PMMA and PBMA throughout the plexiglass. Through his understanding of phase transitions, Priestley has shown that it is possible to precisely control nanostructures, and realised self-assembled biopolymers for use in artificial skin. Alongside his work on polymeric systems, Priestley has investigated nanoparticles, specifically engineered nanoscale zerovalent iron (enZVI) particles, as a means to clean groundwater. He proposed the use of Janus particles for the use in surfactant-free cleansing. In 2019 Priestley was promoted to full professor, and was one of the first African-Americans to hold such a position at Princeton University. In 2020 he was made vice dean of innovation, and in 2022 named dean of The Graduate School. He is the founder of the science-based Cativa health cannabidiol. Priestley is an associate editor of JACS Au, an open-access journal.

Awards and honours 2009 ACS Young Investigator Award 2011 National Science Foundation Career Award 2013 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers 2013 American Physical Society PPG/DPOLY Polymer Lecturer at the University of Sheffield 2014 National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering 2014 Purdue University Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp Lecture 2014 American Society for Engineering Education Top 20 Under 40 2014 The Root Most Influential African Americans 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers MSED Owens Corning Early Career Award 2018 World Economic Forum Young Global Scientist 2020 American Physical Society John H. Dillion Medal 2020 American Chemical Society Macromolecules Young Investigator Award 2023 Fellow of the American Physical Society

Selected publications Priestley, R. D. (2005-07-15). "Structural Relaxation of Polymer Glasses at Surfaces, Interfaces, and In Between". Science. 309 (5733): 456–459. Bibcode:2005Sci...309..456P. doi:10.1126/science.1112217. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 16020732. S2CID 28796923. Rittigstein, Perla; Priestley, Rodney D.; Broadbelt, Linda J.; Torkelson, John M. (2007). "Model polymer nanocomposites provide an understanding of confinement effects in real nanocomposites". Nature Materials. 6 (4): 278–282. Bibcode:2007NatMa...6..278R. doi:10.1038/nmat1870. ISSN 1476-4660. PMID 17369831. Tam, Vivienne H.; Sosa, Chris; Liu, Rui; Yao, Nan; Priestley, Rodney D. (2016-12-30). "Nanomedicine as a non-invasive strategy for drug delivery across the blood brain barrier". International Journal of Pharmaceutics. 515 (1): 331–342. doi:10.1016/j.ijpharm.2016.10.031. ISSN 0378-5173. PMID 27769885.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Rodney Priestley

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Rodney Priestley claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, 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 Rodney Priestley 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 Rodney Priestley 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 Rodney Priestley

In research: Rodney Priestley appears in astronomy 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 Rodney Priestley 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: Rodney Priestley is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1979 births, 20th-century African-American people, 21st-century African-American people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Rodney Priestley 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.

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How to study Rodney Priestley in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Rodney Priestley 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 Rodney Priestley out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Rodney Priestley in simple terms?

Why does Rodney Priestley matter?

Because it connects several astronomy 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 Rodney Priestley?

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 Rodney Priestley.