About Abraham's Work

Abraham Herzog-Arbeitman is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Chemistry at MIT. As a polymer chemist in the Johnson Group, Abe studies polymer and supramolecular materials for next-generation batteries and sustainable plastics. Leveraging organic and macromolecular synthetic methodologies, Abe designs polyelectrolytes, mechanochemically-active networks, and self-assembling graft copolymers. Abe has previously researched lithium-magnesium hybrid batteries at the Leibniz Institut für Festkörper und Werkstoffforschung Dresden as a DAAD RISE Scholar, and degradable polymer composites at IBM Research as a Summer Research Fellow. Abe previously graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.S. and M.S. in Chemistry with General and Departmental Honors, after writing his thesis on polyelectrolyte complexation under Dr. Matt Tirrell. Abe is a former Hertz Fellowship finalist, and a Grand Prize winner of the NSF 2026 Idea Machine.

Abe considers equity and responsibility to be an integral part of scientific inquiry and strives to promote community resilience and justice in and around his research. At MIT, Abe is CAMP and Peer Mentor within the Department of Chemistry, a #ShutDownChem antiracism facilitator, and serves on Chemistry’s Quality of Life Committee, working to improve resources, accessibility, and wellbeing for his fellow students.