Quick Facts
Biography
Paula Hammond is a David H. Koch Professor in Engineering and the Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is a widely recognized and cited researcher in biomaterials, and drug delivery. Her primary interest is in hemostatic technology, but, according to her official web page at MIT, she also has interests in "macromolecular design and synthesis, targeted drug delivery for cancer, nano-scale assembly of synthetic biomaterials, and electrostatic and directed materials assembly". She is an intramural faculty member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and is also an Associate Editor of ACS Nano.
Early life
Hammond was born in 1963 in Detroit, Michigan as Paula Therese Goodwin to parents Jesse Francis and Della Mae Goodwin (nee 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 in Chemical Engineering. Soon after graduating from MIT, Goodwin moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where she obtained her Master of Science in chemical engineering. She later returned to MIT to receive her Ph.D in ChemE.
Hammond is the mother of a transgender son named James who attended Northeastern University.
Honors and Recognitions
In 2013, Hammond was one of three African-American female fellows to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In September 2013, Hammond was recognized by the United States Department of Defense and awarded the Ovarian Cancer Research Program Teal Innovator Award.
- 2017: Fellow of the National Academy of Engineering
- 2016: Fellow of the National Academy of Medicine
- 2014: Alpha Chi Sigma Award for Chemical Engineering Research
- 2013: Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 2013: DoD Ovarian Cancer Teal Innovator Award
- 2013: Charles M.A. Stine Award, AIChE
- 2013: Board of Directors, American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)
- 2013: Margaret Etters Lecturer in Chemistry, University of Minnesota
- 2012: Fellow, American Chemical Society Polymer Chemistry Division
- 2011: David H. Koch Chair Professor of Engineering
- 2010: Top 100 Materials Scientists, top cited as rated by Thomson-Reuters
- 2010: Dow Foundation Distinguished Lecturer, University of California, Santa Barbara
- 2010: Distinguished Scientist Award, Harvard Foundation, Harvard University
- 2009: Melvin Calvin Lecturer, U.C. Berkeley Department of Chemistry
- 2009: Visiting Women’s Scholar Award, University of Delaware
- 2009: William W. Grimes Award, AIChE
- 2009: Caltech Kavli Institute Lecturer
- 2009: Fellow, American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE)
- 2009: Visiting Women’s Scholar Award, University of Delaware
- 2008: Karl Kammermeyer Distinguished Lecture at Iowa State University
- 2008: Irwin Sizer Award for Significant Improvements to MIT Education
- 2008: Featured in “Top 100 Science Stories of 2008”, Discover Magazine, for micropatterned virus batteries
- 2007: Lucy Pickett Lecturer, Mt. Holyoke College
- 2006: Bayer Chair Professorship, 2006-2010
- 2006: Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award for Virus-Based Thin Film Battery
- 2006: Member, National Research Council Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology, 2006-2009
- 2006: Permanent Member, NIH Gene and Drug Delivery Study Group, 2006-2010
- 2004: Georgia Tech Outstanding Young Alumni Award
- 2004: Bayer Distinguished Lecturer
- 2004: Henry Hill Lecturer Award, NOBCChE
- 2003: Radcliffe Institute Fellow (aka Bunting Fellow), Harvard University
- 2000: Junior Bose Faculty Award
- 2000: GenCorp Signature University Award
- 2000: Lloyd Ferguson Young Scientist Award
- 1997: NSF CAREER Award for Young Investigators
- 1996: Environmental Protection Agency Early Career Research Award
- 1996: 3M Innovation Research Award
- 1996: DuPont Young Faculty Research Award, 1996-1999
- 1995: Herman P. Meissner Career Development Chair 1995-1998
- 1994: NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chemistry
- 1992: Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship
- 1992: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Karl Taylor Compton Prize Recipient
- 1990: Eastman Kodak Theophilus Sorrel Graduate Award Recipient, NOBCChE