| Laura Jill Kaufman | |
| Workplaces: | Harvard University Columbia University |
| Alma Mater: | Columbia University University of California, Berkeley |
| Thesis Title: | Fifth-order nonresonant Raman spectroscopy |
| Thesis Url: | http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/892829631 |
| Thesis Year: | 2002 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Graham Fleming |
Laura Jill Kaufman is an American chemist who is a professor of chemistry at Columbia University. Her research considers the dynamics of crowded systems, including biopolymer gels, supercooled liquids and conjugated polymers.
Kaufman grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey.[1] Her father worked as a postal clerk and her mother taught in a public school. In 1997 Kaufman graduated from Columbia University, where she majored in Chemistry and English.[2] As an undergraduate student Kaufman was selected for the I.I. Rabi Scholars programme, and took part in various different research projects. She has said that this experience was transformative in becoming a scientist. She moved to University of California, Berkeley for her graduate studies, where she worked on multi-dimensional Raman spectroscopy. She worked in the laboratory of Graham Fleming on carbon disulfide. Her research looks at how diffusive dynamics emerge from fluctuations of individual molecules.[3] After finishing her doctoral research, Kaufman moved to Harvard University, where she joined Xiaoliang Sunney Xie and used Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS) microscopy to investigate colloidal glasses.[4] [5]
Kaufman joined the Chemistry faculty at Columbia University in 2004. Her research considers the dynamics of crowded, complex systems,[6] including supercooled liquids and polymer aggregates studied by single-molecule fluorescence microscopy.[7] In supercooled liquids, single molecule fluorophores provide information on the surrounding host. Kaufman has shown that conjugated polymers with a compact conformation have different photophysical properties than those with an extended backbone.[8]
Kaufman is married to David Reichman, the Centennial Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University.[12] They have two children.