For Karen Lozano, a lot of life comes back to fibers. She was born in Mexico. Her mother was a seamstress who “designed, sewed, and sold uniforms to local kindergartens,” while her father provided fruits and vegetables to local restaurants. As a little girl growing up amidst the whirr and hum of her mother’s sewing machine, Lozano dreamed of being a scientist. Little did she know that one day she would become the first Mexican woman to earn a PhD in engineering from Rice University. A prolific inventor, she holds over 45 patents/patent applications, the most notable being the invention of a spinning technology that could manufacture nanofibers 900 times faster than technology currently on the market.
For Lozano, the process of discovery was a surprising one. Frustrated by the painfully slow process of making the miniscule nanofibers and the solvents that went into producing them, she was searching for a solution. “I took my children,” she recalled, “to a show at the Arena and saw that they were selling cotton candy. Holding the cotton candy in my hand, I realized it was a collection of fibers. I had a eureka moment!” And after years of research and development (and extensive studies of cotton candy machines), “Forcespinning” was born, a new, trademarked technology enabling the manufacture of nanofibers from a wide range of materials using centrifugal force rather than electrostatic force in the electrospinning process. Lozano would go on to found two companies focusing on nanofibers and other technologies in the Rio Grande Valley, helping to spur economic development in the region.
Today, Lozano is professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. In 2023, she was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering for “contributions to nanofiber research and commercialization and mentoring of undergraduate students from underserved populations.” For Lozano, mentorship is a prime motivating force: “As a first-generation student, an international student, and the only woman for years in way too many circles, I want my students to be able to see themselves in me. I want to ease their load, not to make it easy, but to propel them higher than they ever could have dreamed of.”
Twitter: @karenslab
