About me
Bio:
Derek Patton is currently a full professor and has served as the Director of the School of Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Southern Mississippi since 2019. After earning a B.S. in Chemistry from Jacksonville State University, he pursued an M.S. at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a Ph.D. at the University of Houston. In 2006, he extended his expertise as an NRC Postdoctoral Fellow at NIST in the Polymers Division. In 2008, he joined USM's faculty, where he has received several honors including the NSF CAREER Award, Graduate School Mentor of the Year, and POLY Fellow. Recently he was elected as Vice Chair of the ACS Division of Polymer Chemistry and will progress into the chair role over the next three years. Derek’s research team has contributed over 80 peer-reviewed publications and one U.S. patent in the space of polymer synthesis, functional surfaces, and degradable and sustainable polymer materials.
