Larisa Florea Assistant Professor

Dr. Larisa Florea is Assistant Professor in Chemistry at Trinity College Dublin. Since joining Trinity Larisa has been the recipient of several prestigious awards, including an ERC Starting Grant (2018) and an Irish Research Council – Laureate Starting Grant (2018). She is partner in H2020-FET-OPEN-2020 project, 5D NanoPrinting. and since 2021 she is co-coordinator of a successful Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) project entitled ‘DeMANS’ Design and manufacture of sustainable materials for additive manufacturing technologies.

Prof. Florea’s research comprises several distinct strands of research in the soft matter realm, including development of new stimuli-responsive polymers, 3D fabrication technologies, micro-fabrication of polymeric actuators & sensors, and development of smart micro-vehicles. Her group’s research surrounds fundamental material development to provide access to ‘adaptive’ materials that can switch between different states in response to various external stimuli. Stimulation of these materials using light, temperature, electrochemical potential, or changes in the local chemical environment can result in highly precise 4D responses, all the way from the nano to the macro scale. The incorporation of responsive units at the molecular level, combined with precise and sophisticated design, enables controllable movement and function akin with that found in nature.

Larisa studied organic chemistry and chemical engineering at University Politehnica in Timisoara, Romania (B.Sc. Hons). In 2009 she joined the Adaptive Sensors Group at Dublin City University where she earned her Ph.D. in materials chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Dermot Diamond. Larisa began her postdoctoral career at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics, and in 2016 she achieved a senior position as Team Leader in Materials Chemistry and Microfluidics.