Letter from the Department of Chemistry Head,
Linda Peteanu
I welcome you to the Department of Chemistry’s first annual newsletter. We are happy to share the stories and achievements of our faculty, students and alumni with you as this is an exciting time for the department and for science at Carnegie Mellon, as you’ll read in the coming pages.
When my colleague Hyung Kim stepped down as department head in late 2015 after 14 years of service, I came on as interim head in early 2016. Since becoming department head in the fall of 2017, I’ve had the privilege to help forge the chemistry department’s path forward.
My vision for the department is that we grow our interdisciplinary strengths while continuing to address our goals, which are using chemistry to improve people’s daily lives in the areas of their environment, their health and the products that are available to them.
In this issue, you will get to know more about the research of our faculty and how they are using a wide range of disciplines to advance the future of science. The Mellon College of Science believes in accelerating and transforming discovery in the foundational sciences through the application of new technologies and through interdisciplinary connections across STEM. Our faculty are doing just that by advancing earth and sustainability science, pioneering the future of biomedical and health science research and pushing the boundaries of materials discovery.
In other parts of this issue, you will read about the amazing work our faculty, undergraduate and graduate students and alumni are doing. The department has been at the forefront of many important discoveries in chemistry in 2018. Our students are earning a number of accolades from professional societies, receiving awards for their research at conferences and being selected for prestigious scholarships and fellowships. Our alumni are recognized as top leaders in their fields and have been inducted into the National Academy of Engineering and named ACS Fellows.
Thank you for being a part of our community. Please stay in touch and send us news. And if you plan to be in Pittsburgh, don’t hesitate to reach out and visit.