Ellen S. Gawalt, PhD

Dr. Ellen Gawalt is the Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Hillman Distinguished Professor and Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Duquesne University.  Dr. Gawalt earned her BS in Chemistry at Duke University. She then went to Princeton University, where she achieved both a MS and a PhD in Chemistry. She won a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the University of Chicago, where she studied “Interfacial Chemistry of Modified Surfaces and Their Interaction with the Cellular Environment” before she moved to Pittsburgh to accept a position at Duquesne. Dr. Gawalt is a current member of the American Chemical Society.  She is the holder of 7 patents and 5 patents pending. Dr. Gawalt’s research group currently focuses on the surface chemistry of biomaterials and improving the tissue-material interaction.  She serves as an ad-hoc peer reviewer for: Acta Biomaterialia, Electrochemica Acta, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, Clinical Orthopedics and Related Research, Journal of Colloids and Interfacial Science, Thin Solid Films, and several other prestigious publications. She has received a number of awards, such as the Bayer School Excellence in Service Award (2016), Bayer School Excellence in Teaching Award (2014), Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences Excellence in Teaching, Duquesne University (2007), the Creative Teaching Award, Duquesne University (2007), and the Wyeth-Ayerst Graduate Student Seminar Award, Princeton University (2000). View a list of Dr. Gawalt’s publications here.