Paula Therese Hammond (born September 3, 1963) is a David H. Koch Professor in Engineering and the Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering 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 ...

(MIT). She was the first woman and person of color appointed as head of the Chemical Engineering department. Her laboratory designs

polymer A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...

s and

nanoparticle A nanoparticle or ultrafine particle is usually defined as a particle of matter that is between 1 and 100 nanometres (nm) in diameter. The term is sometimes used for larger particles, up to 500 nm, or fibers and tubes that are less than 10 ...

s for

drug delivery Drug delivery refers to approaches, formulations, manufacturing techniques, storage systems, and technologies involved in transporting a pharmaceutical compound to its target site to achieve a desired therapeutic effect. Principles related to dr ...

and energy-related applications including batteries and fuel cells. Hammond has been the recipient of numerous awards and is a member of the

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Eng ...

(2016), the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...

(2017, “for contributions to self-assembly of polyelectrolytes, colloids, and block copolymers at surfaces and interfaces for energy and healthcare applications”), the National Academy of Sciences (2019), and the

National Academy of Inventors The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) is a US non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging inventors in academia, following the model of the National Academies of the United States. It was founded at the University of South Florida in 2010. ...

(2021). She is an intramural faculty member of the

Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research The Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT ( ; also referred to as the Koch Institute, KI, or CCR/KI) is a cancer research center affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) located in Cambridge, Massachusetts ...

and an Associate Editor of '' ACS Nano.''

Early life and education

Hammond was born in 1963 in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

as Paula Therese Goodwin to parents Jesse Francis and Della Mae Goodwin (née McGraw). Her father has a Ph.D in Biochemistry and her mother has a master's degree in nursing. Goodwin graduated a year prior to her expected date at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Bloomfield, Michigan in 1980. After graduation, Goodwin went on to study and earn a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

in Chemical Engineering from

(MIT) in 1984. After completing her bachelors, she went to work for

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorol ...

for two years as a process engineer in the packaging of integrated circuits. She returned to academia and obtained a Master of Science in chemical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1988, while working at Georgia Tech Research Institute as a research engineer. Hammond's master's thesis was on conducting elastomers for robotic tactile sensors. In 1988, she returned to MIT to earn her Ph.D. in chemical engineering (granted in 1993). At MIT she worked under the supervision of Michael F. Rubner. Her Ph.D. thesis research focused on synthesizing polymers with mechanochromic properties. After completing her Ph.D., Hammond was a NSF Postdoctoral Fellow with

George M. Whitesides George McClelland Whitesides (born August 3, 1939) is an American chemist and professor of chemistry at Harvard University. He is best known for his work in the areas of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, organometallic chemistry, molecu ...

in the chemistry department at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

Research and career

In 1995 Hammond was appointed to

as an Assistant Professor. Hammond and her lab uses understanding of secondary interactions to guide materials assembly at surfaces and in solution to design

s and nanoparticles for applications in drug delivery; wound healing; and energy and fuel cells. Her work involves

Layer by layer Layer-by-layer (LbL) deposition is a thin film fabrication technique. The films are formed by depositing alternating layers of oppositely charged materials with wash steps in between. This can be accomplished by using various techniques such as imm ...

(LbL) assembly, which builds films of alternating positively and negatively charged molecules. Additionally, her lab works with nanoparticle drug carriers for targeted nanoparticle drug, gene, and

siRNA Small interfering RNA (siRNA), sometimes known as short interfering RNA or silencing RNA, is a class of double-stranded RNA at first non-coding RNA molecules, typically 20-24 (normally 21) base pairs in length, similar to miRNA, and operating ...

delivery for cancer treatment as well as artificial polypeptides and polymeric nucleic acids to engage biology and build novel drug systems.

Medical applications

Hammond has developed "stealth polymers" to disguise cancer chemotherapeutics contained in nanoparticles so that they can reach tumors. She also works on ways to transport RNA into cells to either increase or decrease the expression of specific genes. Hammond cofounded MIT's Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology, a partnership between MIT, the Army, and industry partners to develop nanotechnology to improve soldier "protection and survivability." As part of this program, Hammond designed a spray that helps blood clot to prevent blood loss. Hammond developed LayerForm™️ technology to build drug delivery films with alternating drug and polymer layers. In 2013, she co-founded a

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used ...

company
LayerBio Inc.
to commercialize LayerForm™️ for

regenerative medicine Regenerative medicine deals with the "process of replacing, engineering or regenerating human or animal cells, tissues or organs to restore or establish normal function". This field holds the promise of engineering damaged tissues and organs by st ...

applications. Hammond is a member of the board of directors fo
Alector
a biotech company focusing on immuno-neurology. She is also a member of the board of director for

Burroughs Wellcome Fund The Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) is an American non-profit medical research organization that provides funding for biomedical research, STEM education, and areas of career development for scientists. Since 1970, it has been headquartered in Nor ...

Energy and fuel cells

Hammond also works on the development of polymers for use in batteries thin films of carbon microtubules that can be used in batteries,

solar cell A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon.

s, and fuel cells. She presented research on virus-based batteries to

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

in 2009.

Honors and recognitions

Hammond has received multiple honors and awards throughout her career. As a graduate student in 1992, she was awarded
Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship
from the National Academy of Sciences. Her postdoc was supported by an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chemistry, awarded in 1994. Since joining the faculty at MIT, Hammond has amassed several plaudits, with early career highlights including an Environmental Protection Agency Early Career Research Award in 1996 and an

NSF CAREER Award The National Science Foundation CAREER awards, presented by the National Science Foundation (NSF), are in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through research and education, and the integration of these endeavors i ...

for Young Investigators in 1997. In 2013, Hammond was one of three African-American female fellows to be elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

. She was elected to the

and the

in rapid succession in 2016 and 2017, respectively, the National Academy of Sciences in 2019 and finally the

in 2021. In 2021 Hammond was also selected to be a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) under President Biden.

Selected bibliography

* * *

References

External links

Oral History interview transcript for Paula T. Hammond on 16 December 2020, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives

TED Talk

Featured in Women in Chemistry: Lessons from Life and the Laboratory, a television program produced by WHYY and the Science History Institute

Lab websiteMIT Infinite History video interviewMargaret MacVicar Memorial AMITA Oral History
also on MIT Dome {{DEFAULTSORT:Hammond, Paula 1963 births Living people Scientists from Detroit MIT School of Engineering faculty Georgia Tech alumni MIT School of Engineering alumni Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors Members of the National Academy of Medicine Fellows of the American Physical Society American scientists