As shared from MIT News Office
July 13, 2015
Dr. Paula Hammond named head of Department of Chemical Engineering.
An MIT faculty member since 1995,
Hammond succeeds Dr. Klavs Jensen as ChemE department head.
Paula T. Hammond, the David H. Koch Professor in Engineering, has been named the new head of the
Department of Chemical Engineering (ChemE), effective July 13. She is
the first woman and first person of color appointed to the post.
The announcement was made this morning
in a special faculty meeting of the department. “We are fortunate
to have someone with Professor Hammond’s vision and dedication to
lead this distinguished department,” says Ian A. Waitz, dean of the
School of Engineering. “She has a deep knowledge of the Institute
and has led a remarkable career as a researcher and educator. Please
join me in congratulating Paula on this appointment.”
Hammond succeeds Klavs Jensen, the
Warren K. Lewis Professor of Chemical Engineering, who has been the
department head in ChemE since 2007; Jensen will reengage full time
with teaching and research in the department. “Klavs has been a
superb colleague, and he has set a very high bar for leadership of a
department,” Waitz noted.
Hammond is a core faculty member of the
Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and was a founding
member of the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies. She has
collaborators in academic departments throughout the Institute, and
has worked with clinicians and researchers at various Boston-area
hospitals. Her research group focuses on biomaterials and drug
delivery. Their research focuses on the self-assembly of polymeric
nanomaterials; the core of her work is the use of electrostatics and
other complementary interactions to generate functional materials
with highly controlled architectures, including the development of
new biomaterials and electrochemical energy devices. She and her
former students and postdocs have started a range of biotech
companies.
Hammond’s many awards and honors
include the Alpha Chi Sigma Award for Chemical Engineering Research
in 2014, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Charles M. A.
Stine Award in Materials Engineering and Science in 2013, the Ovarian
Cancer Research Program Teal Innovator Award in 2013, the Junior Bose
Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2000, an NSF Career Award
in 1997, and the MIT Karl Taylor Compton Prize in 1992 (in
recognition of achievements in citizenship and devotion to the
welfare of MIT). She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, a director of the Board of the American Institute of
Chemical Engineers, and a fellow of the American Physical Society and
American Institute of Biomedical and Biological Engineering, among
other honors.
She has taught several classes over the
past several years, including the 10.467 (Polymer Science Laboratory), 10.569 (Synthesis of Polymers), and 10.10 (Introduction
to Chemical Engineering). Hammond previously served as executive
officer of the department in 2008 through 2011. Hammond received her
BS in chemical engineering from MIT in 1984, her MS from Georgia Tech
in 1988, and earned her PhD from MIT in 1993.
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