iMPACT

Chemistry Alumna Karen Wooley ’88 (Texas A&M University)

View photos from the event.

Chemistry alumna Karen Wooley (’88) presented the College of Science Fall 2015 Distinguished Lecture Series, “The next generation of plastics: Advanced applications for sophisticated nanoscopic devices.” She  addressed the tremendous customizability offered by large polymers,” at the public lecture November 4, 2015. Wooley is the W.T. Doherty-Welch Chair in Chemistry and University Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University.

Organic polymer materials—commonly thought of as plastics—are critically important to every aspect of human life, from the clothes we wear to the computers we use to the tires on our cars and to the devices that administer medicine. In her general lecture, Wooley highlighted synthetic strategies that prepare functional polymer materials for a specific application, such as infectious disease, cancer treatment, pollutant recovery, microelectronic devices, marine biofouling or inhibiting ice formation on airplanes.

Renowned for her research in polymer chemistry, Wooley studies its many applications in medicine and industry. Her other research interests include macromolecular and nanoscale materials, organic chemistry and polymer synthesis.

Wooley, who holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University, is director of the Laboratory for Synthetic Biologic Interactions at TAMU and is an associate editor for the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Wooley has won numerous national and international awards. She was named a 2015 American Academy of Arts & Sciences Fellow and a 2014 Honorary Fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society. She won the 2014 American Chemical Society Award in Polymer Chemistry and the Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Prize. She also received Young Investigator Awards from the National Science Foundation, the Army Research Office and the Office of Naval Research.

November 4

The Fall 2015 Distinguished Lecture Series was held in the Learning Innovation Center.

4-5 PM Reception, foyer
5-6 PM Lecture, room 200