Dr. Emily Pentzer, an associate professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Department of Chemistry at Texas A&M University, has been named to the 2024 cohort of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s New Voices in Sciences, Engineering and Medicine program.
Pentzer is one of 21 outstanding early- and mid-career scientists, engineers and medical professionals added this month to the program, which now totals 60 members across three cohorts who have served on more than 21 National Academies committees and represented U.S. early-career STEM voices at more than 27 major international and domestic events. Five additional members of the previous cohort will extend their service by one year to join the 2024 group.
“From the announcement of the very first New Voices cohort, I have been thrilled with the caliber, diversity and dedicated work ethic of these emerging leaders,” said National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt. “They represent proudly the best and brightest of young American researchers.”
The New Voices program aims to expand the diversity of expertise engaged in the work of the National Academies while developing a network of U.S. leaders to address national and global challenges. During their two-year terms of service, Pentzer and her fellow new members will engage in the advisory and convening work of the National Academies while developing their own interdisciplinary projects and helping to build a robust network of emerging STEM leaders across the U.S. and around the world.
“I'm very excited for the opportunity to serve the national and global community through this program,” said Pentzer, a 2021 Texas A&M Presidential Impact Fellow.
A member of the Texas A&M faculty since 2019 and currently a 2024 Vanguard Visiting Fellow at the University of Birmingham, Pentzer is a nationally recognized rising star in polymer chemistry whose dynamic and interdisciplinary research program at the intersection of science and engineering centers around designing, synthesizing and evaluating composite organic materials with diverse application in energy, healthcare, the environment and industry. She earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from Northwestern University in 2010 and completed postdoctoral study at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, then spent six years as the Frank Hovorka Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) with a secondary appointment in macromolecular science and engineering before coming to Texas A&M. In addition to her appointments in Materials Science and Engineering and Chemistry, she is an affiliated faculty member in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering.
Pentzer has served since 2023 as the inaugural editor-in-chief of RSC Applied Polymers after previously serving from 2015-23 as an associate editor for another Royal Society of Chemistry journal, Polymer Chemistry. Her career honors to date include a 2016 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, a 2017 American Chemical Society (ACS) Polymer Materials Science and Engineering Division Young Investigator Award, the 2019 CWRU Faculty Diversity Excellence Award, a 2021 ACS Women Chemist Committee Rising Star Award and being named as a finalist for the 2022 Blavatnik Award in Physical Sciences and Engineering.
In May, New Voices will host the 2024 International Conference of Young Scientists, the annual meeting of the Global Young Academy, held in Washington, D.C.
The National Academies are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, engineering and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences signed by President Lincoln.
Learn more about the Pentzer Lab at Texas A&M or the New Voices program.