We seek to understand and exploit interesting characteristics of 'soft' materials, such as polymers, liquid crystals, and biological tissues, and hybrid combinations of them with unusual classes of inorganic micro/nanomaterials -- ribbons, wires, membranes, tubes or related. Our aim is to control and induce novel electronic and photonic responses in these materials, and to develop new 'soft lithographic' and biomimetic approaches for patterning them and guiding their growth. This work combines fundamental studies with forward-looking engineering efforts in a way that promotes positive feedback between the two. Our current research focuses on soft materials for conformal electronics, nanophotonic structures, microfluidic devices, and microelectromechanical systems, all lately with an emphasis on bio-inspired and bio-integrated technologies. These efforts are highly multidisciplinary, and combine expertise from nearly every traditional field of technical study.
Professor John A. Rogers obtained BA and BS degrees in chemistry and in physics from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1989. From MIT, he received SM degrees in physics and in chemistry in 1992 and the PhD degree in physical chemistry in 1995. From 1995 to 1997, Rogers was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard University Society of Fellows. During this time he also served as a founder and Director of Active Impulse Systems, a company that commercialized technologies developed during his PhD work. He joined Bell Laboratories as a Member of Technical Staff in the Condensed Matter Physics Research Department in 1997, and served as Director of this department from the end of 2000 to the end of 2002.
From 2003-2016, he was on the faculty at University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, where he held a Swanlund Chair, the highest chaired position at the university, with a primary appointment in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and joint appointments in the Departments of Chemistry, Bioengineering, Mechanical Science and Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. He served as the Director of a Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center on nanomanufacturing, funded by the National Science Foundation, from 2009-2012 and as Director of the Seitz Materials Research Laboratory from 2012 to 2016.
In September of 2016, he joined Northwestern University as the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Chemistry and Neurological Surgery, where he is also the founding Director of the newly endowed Center on Bio-Integrated Electronics, recently elevated to the status of the Querrey-Simpson Institute of Bioelectronics.
Rogers’ research includes fundamental and applied aspects of nano and molecular scale fabrication as well as materials and patterning techniques for unusual electronic and photonic devices, with an emphasis on bio-integrated and bio-inspired systems. He has published more than 800 papers, and is an inventor on over 100 patents and patent applications, more than 70 of which are licensed or in active use by large companies and startups that he has co-founded.
His research has been recognized with many awards including, most recently, the Sigma Xi William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement (2023), the 2024 IEEE Biomedical Engineering Award (2023), the James Prize in Science and Technology Integration from the National Academy of Sciences (2022), the Washington Award (2022), the Sigma Xi Monie Ferst Award (2021), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2021), the Nano Research Award from the Springer/Nature journal Nano Research (2020), Nancy DeLoye Fitzroy and Roland V. Fitzroy Medal of the ASME (2020), the Herbert Pardes Clinical Research Excellence Award (2020), the Benjamin Franklin Medal from the Franklin Institute (2019), the MRS Medal from the Materials Research Society (2018), the Samuel R. Natelson Award from the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (2018), the Nadai Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (2017), the IEEE EMBS Trailblazer Award (2016), the ETH Zurich Chemical Engineering Medal (2015), the A.C. Eringen Medal from the Society for Engineering Science (2014), the Smithsonian Award for American Ingenuity in the Physical Sciences (2013), the Robert Henry Thurston Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (2013), the Mid-Career Researcher Award from the Materials Research Society (2013), the Lemelson-MIT Prize (2011), a MacArthur Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (2009), the George Smith Award from the IEEE (2009), the National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship from the Department of Defense (2008), the Daniel Drucker Eminent Faculty Award from the University of Illinois (2007) and the Leo Hendrick Baekeland Award from the American Chemical Society (2007). Rogers is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE; 2011), the National Academy of Sciences (NAS; 2015), the National Academy of Medicine (NAM; 2019) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS; 2014), a Fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE; 2009), the American Physical Society (APS; 2006), the Materials Research Society (MRS; 2007), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS; 2008) and the National Academy of Inventors (NAI; 2013). He received an Honoris Causa Doctorate from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from the University of Houston, a Doctor of Science, Honoris Causa, from the University of Missouri at Columbia, and holds Honorary Professorships at Fudan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University and Zhejiang University. Rogers was elected as a Laureate of the Order of Lincoln, the highest award bestowed on an individual by the state of Illinois, in 2021 (fewer than 400 laureates have been elected since the program started in 1964).
Rogers has also been named to many distinguished lectureships, including:
Milne Lecture, University of Edinburgh, 2025.
University Lecture, UT Southwestern Medical Center, 2024.
Alfred E Mann Biomedical Engineering Distinguished Seminar, University of Southern California, 2024.
Selden Lecture, International Anesthesia Research Society, 2024.
IMS Distinguished Lecture, University of Connecticut, 2024.
Ward Lecture, Villanova University, 2023.
ZJU Huang Minglong Lecture, Zhejiang University, 2023.
Penner Lecture, University of California at San Diego, 2023.
Linnaeus Lecture, Uppsala University, 2023.
Munushian Lecture, University of Southern California, 2023.
Pearsall Lecture, Duke University, 2023.
Merel H. Harmel Lecture, Duke University, 2023.
Kilpatrick Lectureship, Illinois Institute of Technology, 2022.
Yungu Lectureship (inaugural), Westlake University, 2022.
Kelly Lecture, Virginia Tech, 2022.
Thomas Bell Lecture, Cleveland State University, 2022.
FORUM Annual Lecture, the Academy of Medical Sciences of the UK, 2020. (virtual)
John Goodenough Materials Innovation Lecture, University of Texas at Austin, 2020. (virtual)
Burack President Distinguished Lecture, University of Vermont, 2020. (canceled)
Wallace H Coulter Lecture, Pittcon, 2020.
Tlusty Manufacturing Lecture, University of Florida, 2020. (canceled)
Fred Kavli Distinguished Lectureship in Materials Science, Materials Research Society, 2020.
Carlton Society Lectureship, 3M, 2019.
Hefei Forum of Great Minds Lecture, University of Science and Technology of China, 2018.
James D. Meindl Lecture, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018.
Closs Lectureship, University of Chicago, 2018.
Naff Lecture, University of Kentucky, 2017.
Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Lecture, Northwestern University, 2017.
William and Joan Caro Lectureship, Northwestern University, 2017.
David Wang Distinguished Lecture, George Washington University, 2017.
Bagwell Lectureship, Purdue University, 2017.
Rockwell Lectureship, University of Houston, 2017.
Tsinghua Global Vision Lecture, Tsinghua University, 2016.
Parratt Lectureship, Cornell University, 2016.
Pritchett Lectureship, Georgia Tech, 2016.
Sectional Lecture, International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, 2016.
Malmstrom Physics Lecture Series, Hamline University, 2016.
Covestro Lectures, University of Pittsburg, 2016.
Dr R A Mashelkar Endowment Lecture, CSIR-NCL, 2015.
IEEE Distinguished Lecturer, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, 2015.
SNU-Dongjin Lectureship, Seoul National University, 2015.
Claritas Distinguished Speaker in Science, Susquehanna University, 2015.
Weissberger/Williams/Farid Lectureship, Kodak Research Labs, 2015.
Fowler Distinguished Lecture, Texas A&M University, 2015.
Inaugural Lecturer for the Institute for Materials Science, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 2015.
'Science at the Edge' Lecturer at Michigan State University, 2015.
College of Engineering Distinguished Lecturer at University Georgia, 2015.
Etter Memorial Lectureship at University of Minnesota, 2015.
Laufer Lectureship at University of Southern California, 2014.
Presidential Lectureship at Northeastern University, 2014.
College of Engineering Distinguished Speaker at University of Texas at Arlington, 2014.
Plenary Lecture, Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2014.
Kavli Foundation Innovations in Chemistry Lecture, American Chemical Society, 2014.
Xingda Lectureship at Peking University, 2013.
Adams Lectureship at Purdue University, 2013.
Presidents Distinguished Lectureship at KAUST, 2013.
Bircher Lectureship at Vanderbilt University, 2013.
Deans Distinguished Lectureship at Northwestern University, 2013.
ET Distinguished Speaker at Applied Materials, 2012.
Wulff Lectureship at M.I.T., 2012.
DB Robinson Distinguished Speaker at University of Alberta, 2012.
GT-COPE Lectureship at Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012.
Nyquist Lectureship at Yale University, 2011.
Judd Distinguished Lecturer at University of Utah, 2011.
ASU Distinguished Scholar and Lecturer at Arizona State University, 2011.
Rohsenow Lectureship at M.I.T., 2011.
Eastman Lectureship in Polymer Science, University of Akron, 2011.
Deans Distinguished Lectureship at Columbia University, 2010.
Nakamura Lectureship at University of California at Santa Barbara, 2010.
Chapman Lectureship (inaugural) at Rice University, 2009.
Zhongguancun Forum Lectureship, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2007.
Dorn Lectureship at Northwestern University, 2007.
Xerox Distinguished Lectureship at Xerox Corporation, 2006.
Robert B. Woodward Scholar and Lectureship at Harvard University, 2001.