Thomas Poon is the President and former Executive Vice President and Provost of the

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. LMU enrolls over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, making it the largest Catholic university on the west coast of the ...

and professor of chemistry. He served as Acting President of Pitzer College in 2014 and Interim President from July 2015 to July 2016.

Pitzer College

Poon co-authored a chemistry textbook called ''Introduction to Organic Chemistry, 4th Edition'' in 2010, which was published by John Wiley and Sons, Inc. He is a member of the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

and the Council on Undergraduate Research. He has contributed to a number of notable research projects. In January 2014, Pitzer College President Laura Skandera Trombley announced she had tapped Poon to serve as Acting President during a leave of absence she would be taking in the autumn. Poon assumed the role of Acting President in September 2014. He has travelled abroad on behalf of Pitzer College. He also participated in the Pitzer College ALS

Ice Bucket Challenge The Ice Bucket Challenge, sometimes called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, is an activity involving the pouring of a bucket of ice water over a person's head, either by another person or self-administered, to promote awareness of the disease amyo ...

in September 2014 using only a small glass of ice water, in an effort to raise awareness about the disease and the

California drought The historical and ongoing droughts in California result from various complex meteorological phenomena, some of which are not fully understood by scientists. Drought is generally defined as "a deficiency of precipitation over an extended perio ...

Personal life

Thomas Poon earned his Bachelor of Science in chemistry from

Fairfield University Fairfield University is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1942. In 2023, the university had about 5,000 full-time undergraduate students and 1,200 gra ...

in 1990 and a PhD in organic chemistry from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

in 1995. In an interview, Poon stated that he is the son of an immigrant father. He has cited his father, who brought his family to the United States, as a significant personal inspiration.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poon, Thomas Presidents of Pitzer College Pitzer College faculty Pitzer College Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Fairfield University alumni