Thomas J. McCarthy (born February 20, 1956) is an American born researcher, Professor of Polymer Science and Engineering at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...
.
Biography
Thomas 'Tom' McCarthy was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts on February 20, 1956. His father, James (Jim), was a draftsman and later a manager at the General Electric Company. His mother, Helen, was a nurse and later a high school English teacher. Tom was educated in the Pittsfield public school system and graduated from Pittsfield High School and Pittsfield Community Music School in 1974. He studied chemistry at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (UMass Amherst), earning his B.S. in 1978, and organic chemistry at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
, earning his Ph.D. in 1982.
His undergraduate and graduate advisors were C. Peter Lillya and George M. Whitesides. He has been a faculty member in the polymer science and engineering department at UMass Amherst since 1982 and was promoted to associate professor in 1986 and professor in 1991. He served as department head from 2000-2003. Since 2006 he has been a guest professor at
Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry
Changchun (, ; ), also romanized as Ch'angch'un, is the capital and largest city of Jilin Province, People's Republic of China. Lying in the center of the Songliao Plain, Changchun is administered as a , comprising 7 districts, 1 county and 3 c ...
and has taught there each semester since 2005.
Publications
He has published 152
peer-review
Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...
ed papers, and has been awarded 10 U.S. patents.
His earliest papers were on organic chemistry; subsequently, they were mostly on polymer and surface chemistry. His most cited paper, written jointly with Didem Öner, is "Ultrahydrophobic Surfaces. Effects of Topography Length Scales on Wettability" (''Langmuir,'' 2000, 16 (20), pp 7777–7782, DOI: 10.1021/la000598o which has received 1224 citations according to Google Scholar
In all, 59 of his papers have had 60 or more citations.
Notable students
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Catherine Coleman
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Anthony J. Dias
*
Molly Shoichet
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCarthy, Thomas J.
Living people
1956 births
21st-century American chemists
University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Natural Sciences alumni
Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni
University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty