Boran Ma

Boran Ma’s path to a career in chemical engineering began with discovering the power of computation to reveal what can’t be seen with the naked eye.

While participating in the Mitacs Globalink Research Internship at the University of Waterloo in 2013, Ma was introduced to computational materials science.

“I was fascinated by the power of computational methods in probing the molecular level of materials, providing mechanistic understanding of macroscopic material properties,” she says.

That experience inspired her to pursue graduate studies in molecular modeling of polymer materials at Northwestern University, where she earned her doctoral degree in 2019.

Ma, an assistant professor in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, uses computation and artificial intelligence to design and study materials. Ma has a joint appointment with the Center for Sustainable Macromolecular Materials and Manufacturing in ASU’s Biodesign Institute.

Before coming to ASU, she was an assistant professor in the School of Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Southern Mississippi, following a postdoctoral associate position at Duke University.

Ma says the Fulton Schools’ strong research enterprise, connections with industry and commitment to student success made ASU the right place for the next step in her career.

“The impressive research activities and outputs of ASU and the Fulton Schools, along with the great industry presence in the Valley, are extremely attractive to me,” she says. “Additionally, the ASU Charter fully resonates with me. ‘Measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed’ is also how I run my classroom and research group.”

At ASU, Ma’s research centers on using AI to accelerate the development of sustainable materials while also making AI more sustainable.

“AI for sustainability and sustainability in AI is the overarching theme of my research,” she says. “My team will leverage AI to accelerate the rational design of sustainable materials while developing lightweight machine learning models with high predictive performance to make AI and machine learning more sustainable.”

As an educator and mentor, Ma hopes students leave her classroom with more than technical knowledge. She wants them to recognize the value of working across disciplines and communicating their ideas effectively.

“I hope students take away that interdisciplinary and cross-field collaborations spark creativity and innovation, and that effective communication is as important as solid science,” she says.

One of Ma’s proudest accomplishments happened outside the laboratory. She completed the 2018 Chicago Marathon, an experience she says continues to shape her approach to research and academia.

“I often draw parallels from this experience to my professional life,” she says. “An academic career and each research project can be a marathon as well. It requires resilience and perseverance, and all the hard work will pay off. But more importantly, be grateful for the people who cheer you on along the way.”

Away from research and the classroom, Ma has another unexpected talent: stand-up comedy. She was a finalist in North Carolina’s Funniest contest in 2022 and one of five inaugural fellows in the Stand-Up Incubator project at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Written by Erik Wirtanen