Dr. Emily Pentzer, associate professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Chemistry at Texas A&M University, has been named a recipient of the 2021 Rising Star Award by the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Women Chemists Committee (WCC).
Pentzer, who joined the Texas A&M faculty in 2019 and also is an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Chemical Engineering, received this honor for her significant contributions to the field of polymer and materials science, for training and educating students and postdocs, and for service to the scientific community.
Established in 2011 to help support careers in science, the WCC Rising Star Award is bestowed annually to recognize up to 10 exceptional women chemists from all disciplines of chemistry. The awards are open to female ACS members working in all sectors of chemistry and chemical engineering. Applicants can be self-nominated or nominated by another individual. Recipients are required to submit an abstract outlining their research and eligibility for the award and invited to present a 10-minute talk highlighting their work.
Pentzer will be recognized at a virtual April 7 award symposium, where she and her fellow recipients will present their talks in conjunction with the 2021 ACS Spring National Meeting.
“I was beyond excited to hear that I was selected as an ACS WCC Rising Star and that I’ll join the impressive list of previous awardees,” Pentzer said. “I’m grateful to my current and former group members for choosing to work with me and for creating a foundation from which to grow our research successes.”
Pentzer’s research at Texas A&M focuses on applying fundamental organic chemistry reactions to architect new structures for diverse energy related applications. Her group has pioneered the use of 2D particles as surfactants for nonaqueous emulsions and used this platform to encapsulate “active” liquids, such as ionic liquids and perfluorinated gases.
One of Pentzer’s current projects aims to utilize 3D printed phase change materials to include built-in heat storage for temperature regulation of existing and new infrastructures.
These products have applications in carbon dioxide uptake, solvent purification, imaging and energy storage. Her other areas of research include polymer-based optical data storage in a quaternary code, development of new polymer chemistries and 3D printing of multifunctional materials for pressure and gas sensing or thermal energy management. Her cross-disciplinary research is enhanced by collaborators across science and engineering.
“Members of my lab come from many different scientific backgrounds, which makes it fun for us to think about different ways we can approach research problems,” Pentzer said. “We are always inspired by a specific application; we then architect new structures with enhanced performance.”
Learn more about the Pentzer Lab at Texas A&M or the WCC Rising Star Award.
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About Research at Texas A&M University: As one of the world’s leading research institutions, Texas A&M is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery, including science and technology. Research conducted at Texas A&M generated annual expenditures of more than $1.131 billion in fiscal year 2020. Texas A&M ranked in the top 25 of the most recent National Science Foundation Higher Education Research and Development survey based on expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019. Texas A&M’s research creates new knowledge that provides basic, fundamental, and applied contributions resulting in economic benefits to the state, nation, and world. To learn more, visit Research@Texas A&M.
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Contact: Amy Halbert, (979) 458-4243 or ahalbert@tamu.edu or Dr. Emily Pentzer, (979) 458-6688 or emilypentzer@tamu.edu
