Wooley Research Group | Department of Chemistry

Professor Karen L. Wooley

B.S., Chemistry, Oregon State University, 1988
Ph.D., Cornell University, 1993
1421 Chemistry | (979) 845-4077
wooley@chem.tamu.edu
Twitter: @karen_wooley

W.T. Doherty-Welch Professor Chair and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Director, TAMU Laboratory for Synthetic-Biologic Interactions
TIPS ETF Research Superiority Researcher

Karen Wooley holds the W. T. Doherty-Welch Chair in Chemistry and is a University Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University. She also has joint appointments in the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering. Wooley studied at Oregon State University (B.S., 1988) and Cornell University (Ph.D., 1993). As an undergraduate, she engaged in natural product total synthesis research in the laboratory of Steven J. Gould (deceased), and she then shifted to macromolecular chemistry with a focus on the synthesis and characterization of dendritic and hyperbranched polymers during Ph.D. studies under the direction of Jean M. J. Fréchet. The first sixteen years of her independent academic career were spent at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and she then relocated to Texas A&M University in July 2009. In addition to her academic positions, she is a co-founder and President of Sugar Plastics, LLC, and Chief Technology Officer of Teysha Technologies, Ltd. Research interests include the synthesis and characterization of degradable polymers derived from natural products, unique macromolecular architectures, complex polymer assemblies, and well-defined nanostructured materials. She has designed synthetic strategies to harness the rich compositional, regiochemical and stereochemical complexity of natural products for the construction of hydrolytically-degradable polymers, which have impact toward sustainability, reduction of reliance on petrochemicals, and production of biologically-beneficial and environmentally-benign natural products upon degradation – these materials are expected to impact the global issue of plastic pollution and address challenges resulting from climate change. Recent awards include election as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2015), National Academy of Inventors (2019), American Association for the Advancement of Science (2020), American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2020), and National Academy of Sciences (2020); she was also named as the 2021 Southeastern Conference (SEC) Professor of the Year.

Awards

Citation Laureates 2023, Chemistry, “For the development of innovative drug and gene targeting and delivery methods”, Clarivate Plc, 2023
Outstanding Career Award, College of Arts and Sciences, Texas A&M University, 2023
Eminent Scholar Award, Aggie Women Network, Texas A&M University, 2021
SEC Professor of the Year, Southeastern Conference on behalf of Texas A&M University, 2021
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2020 – present
Member, National Academy of Sciences (NAS), 2020 - present
Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), 2020 - present
Fellow, National Academy of Inventors (NAI), 2019 – present
Nominee for the National Postdoctoral Association Garnett-Powers & Associates, Inc. Mentor Award, 2018
Presidential Impact Fellow, Lifetime Entitlement, Inaugural Class, Texas A&M University, 2017 – present
Distinguished Research Achievement Award, Texas A&M University
American Academy of Arts & Sciences Fellow, 2015 – present
Texas A&M University Distinguished Professor, 2011-present
Oesper Award, University of Cincinnati Department of Chemistry, 2015
Honorary Fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society, 2014-present
Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, 2014-present
Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Prize 2014
Texas A&M System Technology Commercialization Innovation Award, 2014
Associate Editor, J. Am. Chem. Soc, 2014-present
American Chemical Society Award in Polymer Chemistry, 2014
American Chemical Society, Polymer Chemistry Division, Herman F. Mark Scholar Award, 2009
Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award in Organic Chemistry, 2002

Staff

Anna Cole

2022 - present
Administrative Assistant
1422 Chemistry | (979) 862-3059
wooley_asst@chem.tamu.edu
Twitter: @anastasie_marie

Justin Smolen

2015 - present
Assistant Director and Research Specialist, Laboratory for Synthetic-Biologic Interactions
2527 Chemistry | (979) 862-3713
justin.smolen@chem.tamu.edu

Dr. Sivaranjani Kumar Srinivasan

2021 - present
Program Coordinator
1422 Chemistry | (979) 862-3059
wooley_asst@chem.tamu.edu
Twitter: @Sivaranjani0119

Current Members

Senior Scientists

Dr. Senthil Kumar Boopathi

Associate Research Scientist
2021 - present
Ph.D., National Chemical Laboratory, India 2014
1425 Chemistry
senthil.boopathi@tamu.edu
Twitter: @SenthilKumarBo2

Dr. Soon-Mi Lim

Senior Scientist
2014 - present
Ph.D., Texas A&M University, 2006
1331 Chemistry | (979) 845-1639
soonmi.lim@chem.tamu.edu
Twitter: @SoonmiLim

Dr. Ashlee Jahnke

Research Scientist
2014 - present
Ph.D., The University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2014
1429 Chemistry
ashlee.jahnke@chem.tamu.edu
Twitter: @ash_jahnke

Visiting Scholars

Dr. Mahmoud Elsabahy

2011 - present
Visiting Scholar
mahmoud.elsabahy@gmail.com

Dr. Marco Giles

2015 - present
Ph.D., Tulane University, 2011
1427 Chemistry
marco.giles@chem.tamu.edu

Ph.D. Students

Autumn Andras

2021 - present
1425 Chemistry
aandras2@tamu.edu
Twitter: @autumnandras

Elias Arroyo

2024 - present
1425 Chemistry
eliasarr@tamu.edu

Ashley Braaksma

2020 - present
1427 Chemistry
abraaksma@tamu.edu
Twitter: @braaksma_ashley

Leyla Gillett

2024 - present
1428 Chemistry
lgillett@tamu.edu

John Jalkanen

2023 - present
1428 Chemistry
johnhjalkanen@gmail.com

Chandeni Kassen

2023 - present
1426 Chemistry
crk23@tamu.edu

Mick Kuo

2023 - present
1427 Chemistry
micky321987@tamu.edu
Twitter: @MickKuo

Shih-Guo Li

2020 - present
1427 Chemistry
a860815a@tamu.edu
Twitter: @GuoShih

Dani Neil

2024 - present
1425 Chemistry
emn02@tamu.edu

Katherine Peters

2024 - present
1427 Chemistry
kpeters5@tamu.edu

Cassidy Tibbetts

2021 - present
1426 Chemistry
cassidy.tibbetts@tamu.edu

Undergraduate Students

Gavin Moore

2024 - present
1425 Chemistry
gavin9805@tamu.edu

Visiting Students

Chaima Ben Ammar

2024 - present
1427 Chemistry
chaima.benammar01@universitadipavia.it

Daniel Szopa

2025 - present
1425 Chemistry
daniel.szopa@pwr.edu.pl

Former Members

Former TAMU Visiting Scholars

Andrew P. Dove
Ph.D., University of Warwick, UK

Sussana Elkassih
REU Undergraduate Research Program, University of Texas, Dallas, TX

Bryan Tucker
REU Undergraduate Research Program, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA

Simcha Felder
REU Undergraduate Research Program, Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, MI

Former Senior Scientists

Texas A&M University

Guorong Sun
2010 to 2022

Former Post-Doctoral Associates

Texas A&M University

Chavis Stackhouse
2022 to 2023

Debasis Pati
2020 to 2021

Fuwu Zhang
2018 to 2020

Hai (Peter) Wang
2018 to 2020

Richen Li
2018

Xiang Zhu
2017 to 2019

Rachel Letteri
2016 to 2018

Yingchao Chen
2015 to 2017

Lu Su
2014 to 2017

Yannick Borguet
2013 to 2015

Amandine Noel
2013 to 2015

Marco Giles
2012 to 2015

Tiffany P. Gustafson
2012 to 2014

Jeffery E. Raymond
2011 to 2014

Koichiro Mikami
2011 to 2012

Jiong Zou
2011 to 2014

Scott Zawko
2010 to 2011

Céline Besset
2010 to 2011

Christopher Fidge
2009 to 2011

Solène Cauët-Fidge
2008 to 2010

Jennifer L. Sorrells
2008 to 2010

Washington University

Andreas Nyström
2006 to 2008

Kenya T. Powell
2006 to 2008

Wenjun (Eric) Du
2006 to 2009

Zihan Huang
2006

Jinqi Xu
2005 to 2007

Chong Cheng
2003 to 2007

C. Marcus Ruda
2005 to 2006

Laura Turculet
2003 to 2005

Simon Harrisson
2003 to 2005

Rachel K. O'Reilly
2003 to 2005

Gerald O. Brown
2003 to 2005

Gianluca De Leo
Project Manager & IT Specialist

Dipanjan Pan
2002 to 2005

Krishnamurthy Shanmuganandamurthy
1999 to 2001

Jianquan Liu
1999 to 2001

Timothy E. Baroni
1999 to 2000

Daoji Gan
1998 to 2000

Haiyong Huang
1996 to 1998

Andrei D. Stefanescu
1996 to 1998

Rolf Gertzmann
1995 to 1996

Thomas A. Straw
1994 to 1995

Former Graduate Students

Texas A&M University

Jack Ellis
2022 to 2024

Stone Naquin
2022 to 2024

Hongming Guo
2021 to 2023

Yunchong Yang
2020 to 2023

Gina Ching Pang
2018 to 2023

Yidan Shen
2018 to 2022

Mariela Vazquez
2015 to 2022

David Tran
2017 to 2022

Ami Patel
2019 to 2022

Seokmin Kang
2020 to 2022

Xujia Zhong
2019 to 2020

Benjamin Demor
2017 to 2020

Mei Dong
2015 to 2020

Tan P. Nguyen
2015 to 2020

Yue Song
2015 to 2020

Nari Kang
2015 to 2020

Yen-Nan Lin
2015 to 2020

Christopher H. Komatsu
2014 to 2020

Mahsa Minaeian
2017 to 2019

Eric E. Leonhardt
2014 to 2019

Sarah Hancock
2018

Jessica Huang
2015 to 2018

Yi-Yun (Timothy) Tsao
2013 to 2018

Kevin Wacker
2013 to 2017

Richen Li
2012 to 2018

Xun He
2012 to 2017

Hai (Peter) Wang
2012 to 2018

Simcha E. Felder
2012 to 2018

Samantha L. Kristufek
2011 to 2017

Jeniree A. Flores Delgado
2011 to 2017

Jennifer S. Zigmond
2011 to 2016

Jingwei Fan
2011 to 2016

Young H. Lim
2011 to 2015

Kellie Seetho
2010 to 2015

Lauren A. Link
2012 to 2015

Sangho Cho
2010 to 2015

Kenton Rauwerdink
2010 to 2012

Jennifer M. Streff
2010 to 2012

Fuwu Zhang
2010 to 2015

Danielle Policarpio
2010 to 2013

Adriana Pavia-Sanders
2010 to 2015

Robert Werk
2009 to 2011

Kevin Pollack
2009 to 2014

Alexander T. Lonnecker
2009 to 2017

Jennifer Streff
2009 to 2012

Gyu Seong Heo
2008 to 2015

Shiyi Zhang
2008 to 2013

Chao Yang
2009 to 2011

Sandani Samarajeewa
2008 to 2013

Ang Li
2007 to 2012

Rita Shrestha
2007 to 2012

Yun (Lily) Lin
2007 to 2012

Philip M. Imbesi
2007 to 2012

Washington University

Zhou Li
2006 to 2011

Nam S. Lee
2006 to 2011

Ke Zhang
2004 to 2009

Jun Ma
2005 to 2010

Rhiannon K. Iha
2005 to 2010

Jeremy W. Bartels
2005 to 2010

Guorong Sun
2004 to 2009

Zicheng Li
2004 to 2009

Yali Li
2004 to 2009

Shrinivas Venkataraman
2002 to 2007

Brooke A. Van Horn
2002 to 2007

David S. Germack
2002 to 2007

Zhiyun Chen
2002 to 2007

Kenya T. Powell
2001 to 2006

Zihan Huang
2003 to 2007

Glenna Anderson
2003 to 2007

Mingming Zhu
2000 to 2002

Jeffrey L. Turner
2000 to 2005

Kai Qi
2000 to 2005

Maisie J. Joralemon
2000 to 2005

Jin Ma
1999 to 2001

Chakravarthy Gudipati
1999 to 2004

Matthew L. Becker
1998 to 2003

Cathleen Kolthoff
1998 to 2000

Juli S. Allen
1998 to 2000

Qinggao Ma
1997 to 2002

Qi Zhang
1997 to 2001

Min Wang
1996 to 2001

Christopher G. Clark, Jr.
1995 to 2002

Harvey R. Fields, Jr.
1994 to 2004

Anja Mueller
1995 to 1998

Jennifer M. Weinberg Tsao
1994 to 1998

Bruce Thurmond II
1994 to 1998

Daniel H. Bolton
1994 to 1998

Former Undergraduate Students

Texas A&M University

Jilian Linn
2024

Samantha Fehlis
2023 to 2024

Megal Nathan
2023

TJ Fletcher
2023

Lexie Handlin
2022

Ximena Barrutia
2019/05 to 2019/08

Keiani Smith
2018 to 2019

Mona Fattahi
2018 to 2019

Menaka Tandon
2017 to 2019

Catherine Morejon-Garcia
2017

Travis Smith
2016 to 2018

Randinu Pulukkody
2016 to 2018

Ryan Allen
2016

Alexis Gooch
2016 to 2017

Brooke Versaw
2014 to 2018

Eric Vavra
2014 to 2015

Audrey Nelson
2014

Sarah Ward
2014 to 2015

Joel Russell
2014 to 2015

Amelia Gonzalez
2014 to 2016

Sergio Estrada
2014

Sarah Leininger
2013

Tyler Kristufek
2013

Emily Emmons
2013

Matthew Svach
2013 to 2014

Virginia Vance
2013 to 2014

Perouza Parsamian
2012

Sussana Elkassih
2012

Daniel Dobbins
2012 to 2013

Ryan Zentay
2011 to 2013

Bryan Tucker
2011

Johnson Asi
2011

Corrie Clark
2010 to 2013

Stephanie Florez Pollack
2010 to 2013

Pinyada Arkompituk
2010

Simcha Felder
2010

Washington University

Ying-Hsin Tsai
2009

Matthew Skinner
2009

Peter Billings
2008 to 2009

Jasmine Ng
2007

Katelin Mirkin
2006

Kevin Sullivan
2005 to 2008

Benjamin Stormo
2005

Jasmine Hunt
2003 to 2005

John B. Matson
2002 to 2004

Anne K. Nugent
2002 to 2004

Paul J. Endres
2002 to 2003

Jennifer Kennedy
2002

Jeremiah Johnson
2001 to 2004

Brad Dickinson
2001

Erin Brew
2001

Nichelle E. Torsiello
2000 to 2001

Rajas Pargaorkor
2000

Laura A. Meierhoff
2000

Michael Lefenfeld
2000

Katherine D. Wooley
1999

Courtney D. Hatch
1998, 1999

Jeffery A.Byers
1998 to 2000

Andrew Cissell
1996

Jodee Collins
1996

Yoshitsugu Noguchi
1996 to 1997

Josh Yoburn
1995

Joel Silverman
1994 to 1995

Stephen Gitto
1994 to 1995

Imran Sheikh
1993 to 1994

Former Editorial Assistants

Jan Hunt
2004 to 2009

Former Lab Researchers

Ying-Hsin (Cindy) Tsai
2009 to 2009

Stephanie Florez Pollack
2010 to 2014

Former Lab Operations Technicians

Andy Moutray
2012 to 2015