Ivan Dmochowski, professor of chemistry, has been named the Alan MacDiarmid Term Professor of Chemistry. Dr. Dmochowski’s laboratory develops chemical and biophysical tools to study complex biological systems, including new technologies for biomolecular imaging, identifying proteins and RNA molecules important in brain function, and fabricating functional bio-nanomaterials. He has collaborations with many researchers at Penn and throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. 

Dr. Dmochowski is the recipient of many prizes and awards, including the American Chemical Society Akron Section’s Crano Award, the McKnight Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Award, the National Science Foundation Career Advancement Award and the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. He served as undergraduate chair of chemistry from 2015 to 2018, continues to serve as co-director of the Penn Pathways program, and is a member of the Provost’s Faculty Council on Access and Academic Support.

The Alan MacDiarmid Endowed Term Chair was established in 2001 by P. Roy Vagelos, (C’50, HON’99) and Diana T. Vagelos, Penn parents, in honor of longtime Nobel Prize-winning chemistry professor Dr. Alan MacDiarmid.

Dr. P. Roy Vagelos, a chemistry major who graduated from Penn in 1950 before going on to receive a medical degree from Columbia University, is the retired chairman and chief executive officer of Merck & Co. He currently serves as chairman of the Board at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Vagelos served as chair of the University’s Board of Trustees from 1995 to 1999, and he is a former member of the Penn Arts and Sciences’ Board of Overseers and the former chair of the Committee for Undergraduate Financial Aid. Diana T. Vagelos is a former overseer of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

The Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology in Penn Arts and Sciences is made possible by Dr. and Mrs. Vagelos. This most recent philanthropic investment in energy research at Penn follows the couple’s gift to endow two professorships focused on energy research in Penn Arts and Sciences, and their 2012 creation of the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (VIPER), an undergraduate degree program of Penn Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. The Vageloses’ longtime support of Penn Arts and Sciences also includes gifts to establish many science-related programs, undergraduate scholarships and endowed professorships.