Dr. Emily Pentzer, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Engineering Honors Faculty Coordinator (Materials Science & Engineering)

Emily Pentzer is an Associate Professor in the department of chemistry and the department of materials science and engineering at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX. She also holds a courtesy appointment in the department of chemical engineering. Her research uses organic synthesis to access new materials and assemblies as a route to understand structure-property-application relationships and access functions not possible with current state-of-the-art systems. Dr. Pentzer regularly participates and organizes events aimed at the professional development of graduate students and facilitating the transition of graduate students and post-docs to successful and vibrant careers in academia.  She has received several awards including the NSF-CAREER award (2016), the PMSE Young Investigator Award (2017), the CWRU Faculty Diversity Excellence Award (2019), and was selected for the Wall of Fame of Bedford North Lawrence High school, where she attended (2020). Dr. Pentzer currently serves as an Associate Editor for the RSC journal Polymer Chemistry and was recently elected as Alt Councilor for the Polymer Division (POLY) of the American Chemical Society.

Dr. Janet Bluemel, Professor of Chemistry

Dr. Bluemel joined Texas A&M University as a Full Professor in 2007. She obtained her Ph.D. in Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in 1989, and subsequently worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Chemistry Department of UC Berkeley. In 1991 she started her independent research as an Assistant Professor at TUM, which she continued as an Associate

Professor at the University of Heidelberg from 1997 to 2007. Dr. Bluemel's research has been at the frontier of materials chemistry for decades, including inorganic and surface chemistry, catalysis, peroxides, and solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Her original and widely impacting accomplishments have defined new boundaries in these diverse fields. Bluemel has always been very active in service functions, and she has mentored numerous female students and encouraged them to pursue successful careers in industry and academia. At Texas A&M she has (1) initiated a BASF-sponsored graduate student symposium, (2) written successful proposals for upgrading and acquiring new NMR spectrometers, (3) served many years on the Faculty Senate, (4) functioned as the Inorganic Division Chair, and (5) initiated several industrial collaborations. She helped female students to obtain numerous awards. As the Chair of ACS awards selection committees she strongly advocated for female candidates, and several were successful. On NSF panels she made sure that proposals of female researchers received due attention.

Dr. Xin Yan, Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Her research at Texas A&M University centers around the development and application of novel mass spectrometric methodologies in disease diagnosis, drug discovery, reaction monitoring, and exploration of new synthetic methods. She is motivated by the possibility of enabling new technology for next-generation approaches to precision medicine and sustainable synthesis.

Dr. Joanna Goodey Pellois, Instructional Associate Professor, Director of Freshman Chemistry

She is  currently involved in both the undergraduate and graduate programs offered by the Department of Chemistry.  As a member of the First Year Program faculty she teaches general chemistry to science and engineering students. She has developed the second semester general chemistry laboratory curriculum that focuses on the chemistry of the Texas Environment. Her research interests are related to solid state chemistry. In the past she has studied materials with interesting magnetic, electronic and optical properties. She hopes to be involved in incorporating more solid state chemistry and materials science into the undergraduate chemistry curriculum.

Dr. Joanna San Pedro, Chemistry Lecturer 

She is currently teaching Chem 107 (General Chemistry for Engineering Students) and Chem 227 (Organic Chemistry I). Aside from her lecture courses, she is also involved in assisting in the technical coordination of the introductory general chemistry laboratory courses (Chem 111 H/M and Chem 112 H/M) specific for our honors and Chemistry major freshmen students. Her research interests lie at the interface of biology and chemistry, specifically in developing practical biological tools and methods to gain a much deeper understanding of how specific cellular processes work. At TAMU, she works in collaboration with the Sczepanski Group in designing and developing genetically encoded tags for imaging RNA by electron microscopy.