Lucas Sievens-Figueroa began his journey at the University of Iowa as a GAANN fellow in fall 2004. He received a Master of Science (2007) and a Doctorate of Philosophy (2009) in Chemical Engineering from the Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at the University of Iowa.  His doctoral dissertation titled “Factors affecting order, photopolymerization behavior, and nanostructure development of reactive lyotropic liquid crystals” was completed under the direction of Dr. Allan Guymon.  After graduation in summer 2009 he joined the University of Puerto Rico as an Adjunct Professor.  He then pursued a Post Doctoral research experience at the NSF Engineering Research Center for Structured Organic Particulate Systems (NJIT/Rutgers) under the direction of Rajesh N. Dave.  His work focused on the development and technology integration of edible polymer films containing dispersed poorly soluble drug particles for pharmaceutical applications. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor at the University of Puerto Rico-Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences where he teaches polymer science and pharmaceutical unit operation courses. His current research interest relates to pharmaceutical technology, and the development and characterization of polymer films produced by different mechanisms to be used in a applications such as semipermeable membranes, implants, and contact lenses.