Teri Odom Named Dow Chemical Research Professor

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Teri W. Odom, associate professor of chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and of materials science and engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University, has been named the Dow Chemical Company Research Professor.

Odom's research focuses on controlling materials at the 100-nanometer scale and investigating their size and shape-dependent properties. She has developed multiscale nanoscale patterning tools that can generate new types of noble metal (plasmonic) structures and has pioneered an area called chemical nanofabrication, which combines chemistry and fabrication to assemble functional nanomaterials. Her research is funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Odom joined Northwestern's faculty in 2002 and is a member of the University's Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, National Center for Learning and Teaching in Nanoscale Science and Engineering, Materials Research Science and Engineering Center and Cancer Center for Nanotechnology Excellence.

She has received many awards and honors, including a David and Lucile Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, a DuPont Young Investigator Grant, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, a Dow Teacher-Scholar Award, an ExxonMobil Solid State Chemistry Faculty Fellowship and, most recently, a Rohm and Haas New Faculty Award.

Odom is a frequent invited speaker for international scientific meetings and symposia. She is co-editor of an Accounts of Chemical Research special issue on the frontiers of nanoscience, to be published this year, and is a member of the Department of Energy's Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Council Grand Challenges subcommittee.

In addition to her research, Odom is active in educational and public outreach. She has developed research-based, hands-on laboratory courses in nanoscale science and technology for Northwestern undergraduate students. The nanopatterning labs are simple and creative, facilitating their dissemination worldwide via print and the Web. The experiments have also been tested by local high school students and teachers as well as by international educators from African countries.

Odom also has delivered many public talks on nanotechnology, including a recent keynote address sponsored by Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. She is scheduled to speak at the Chicago Humanities Festival in November.