Paula Hammond, PhD

“Chemical Engineering allows you to manipulate matter in new and exciting ways, to be able to build something truly incredible that hadn’t been imagined before. By understanding how and why molecules assemble, flow, move and react together, it is possible to create, design and control a world of things.”

Paula Hammond is the Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering and a Professor of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is also the co-founder and Director of LayerBio and a member of Moderna’s scientific advisory board.

At MIT, her lab studies the self-assembly of polymeric nanomaterials with an emphasis on the use of secondary interactions to generate multifunctional materials for biomedical implants, drug delivery, and energy and fuel cells. She is also a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, the MIT Energy Initiative, and MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology.

Hammond is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is one of 25 scientists elected to all three national academies. She has also been honored with the ACS Award in Applied Polymer Science, AIChE Charles M.A. Stine Award, AIChE Alpha Chi Sigma Award for Chemical Engineering Research, and Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Teal Innovator Award.

Hammond received her B.S. in chemical engineering from MIT, her M.S. from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and her Ph.D. from MIT.