Monica Olvera de la Cruz [NAS] is the Lawyer Taylor Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Professor of Chemistry; Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering; Professor of Physics and Astronomy; director of the Center for Computation and Theory of Soft Materials; and co-director of the Center for Bio-Inspired Energy Science. Monica Olvera de la Cruz obtained her B.A. in physics from the UNAM, Mexico, in 1981, and her Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge University, UK, in 1985. She was a guest scientist (1985-86) in the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD. She joined Northwestern University in 1986, where she is the Lawyer Taylor Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, Professor of Chemistry, and of Chemical & Biological Engineering. She is the director of the Center for Computation and Theory of Soft Materials and co-director of the Center for Bio-Inspired Energy Science. From 2006-2013 she directed the Materials Research Center at Northwestern. From 1995-97 she was a staff scientist in the Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique, Saclay, France, where she also held visiting scientist positions in 1993 and in 2003. She has developed theoretical models to determine the thermodynamics, statistics and dynamics of macromolecules in complex environments including multicomponent solutions of heterogeneous synthetic and biological molecules, and molecular electrolytes.