Paul V. Braun is the Ivan Racheff Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and an affiliate of the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, the Beckman Institute forAdvanced Science and Technology, the Department of Chemistry, the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory and the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Prof. Braun's research focuses on the synthesis and properties of 3D architectures with a focus on materials with unique optical, electrochemical, thermal, and mechanical properties. Prof. Braun received his B.S. degree with distinction from Cornell University in 1993, and his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Illinois in 1998. Following a postdoctoral appointment at Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, he joined the faculty at Illinois in 1999