Emily Pentzer, Ph.D.

Pentzer CV 10/2024

Office: RDMC228; CHEM2532

575 Ross St. College Station, TX 77840 USA

Phone: 979-458-6688

Emily Pentzer is a Professor in the Dept. of Chemistry and the Dept. of Materials Science & Engineering at Texas A&M University. She received a BS in chemistry from Butler University (2005) and PhD in chemistry from Northwestern University (2010), where her thesis focused on preparing and polymerizing unsaturated lactones and lactams. She then worked with Professor Todd Emrick in the Polymer Science and Engineering Department at UMass Amherst where she focused on the synthesis and assembly of electronically active materials for organic photovoltaics. In 2013, Dr. Pentzer started her independent career as an assistant professor of chemistry at Case Western Reserve University and she moved to Texas A&M in 2019.

The Pentzer Lab’s research centers on developing new polymeric materials and assemblies as a route to understand structure-property-application relationships and access functions not possible with current state-of-the-art systems. Her group works on the encapsulation of “active” liquids and gases, designing and synthesizing new polymer chemistries, and developing feedstocks for additive manufacturing to produce multifunctional materials, and these materials have applications in thermal energy management, electrochemical energy storage, and carbon capture.

Dr. Pentzer regularly participates in events aimed at professional development of students and post-docs and facilitating their transition to vibrant STEM careers. She has received several awards including the NSF CAREER award (2016), PMSE Young Investigator Award (2017), CWRU Faculty Diversity Excellence Award (2019), ACS WCC Rising Star Award (2021), and was named a Texas A&M Presidential Impact Fellow (2021) and finalist for the Blavatnik Award in physical sciences and engineering (2022). She served as an Associate Editor for Polymer Chemistry from 2015-2023 and served as Alternate Councilor for the Polymer Division (POLY) of the American Chemical Society from 2020-2022. She currently serves as the inaugural Editor in Chief of RSC Applied Polymers (2023-present). Dr. Pentzer is a member of the third cohort of the New Voices program from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.