In the News

01/30/2024
Dr. Hammond is awarded the 2024 Franklin Institute Medal in Chemistry “for innovative methods to create novel materials one molecular layer at a time, and for applying these materials to areas ranging from drug delivery to energy storage.”


01/30/2024
Congratulations to Hammond Lab medical engineering and medical physics graduate student Adam Berger for successfully defending his PhD thesis.


01/24/2024
Congratulations to Hammond Lab alum Dr. Joelle Straehla, who is a finalist for the MIT-Royalty Pharma Prize Competition, sponsored by the MIT Faculty Founder Initiative.


11/27/2023
Congratulations to MSRP student Dominique Gooden, who won the Excellent Student Presentation award from the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) and the Outstanding Research Presentation award in the Engineering, Physics, and Mathematics category at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists (ABRCMS).


11/08/2023
Dr. Hammond is featured in a new IMAX movie at the Boston Museum of Science (MOS) called “The Heart of New England”. Weaving her story with that of others in the New England area, the movie features her passion for science and building equity in the community. You can also catch cameos from many lab members! You can see a movie trailer here and watch the movie on the big screen at the MOS. Check out these pictures from the movie premiere.

Professor Hammond and some members of the lab pose for a picture on the red carpet at the premiere of "The Heart of New England", which features her story.

Professor Hammond and other featured stars in "The Heart of New England" receive a warm applause.

Hammond lab members get excited to watch the screening of the new IMAX movie featuring Dr Hammond.


10/24/2023
Congrats to postdoc Simone Douglas-Green on winning the best poster award at the AIChE AfroBiotech conference. Congrats to Hammond/Straehla lab associate, Elizabeth Nelson for winning the runner-up best poster award.

Simone and Elizabeth win awards at the Afrobiotech conference 2023.


10/17/2023
Professor Hammond is featured in a new portrait series by photographer Christopher Michel entitled “National Academies: New Heroes.” You can see the pictures here.


9/26/2023
Congrats to former Hammond Lab graduate student Yanpu He and other current/former Hammond Lab trainees on their recent work being featured on the back cover of Advanced Healthcare Materials.

Decorative cover showing immunotherapy in action for the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials.


9/16/2023
Congrats to postdoc Simone Douglas-Green on winning a best poster award at the nanoDDS conference and being selected to present her research as a selected presentation.

Postdoc Simone Douglas-Green presents her research after winning a best poster award at nanoDDS 2023.


7/28/2023
Professor Paula Hammond is named the next MIT Vice Provost for Faculty.


7/27/2023
Congrats to Hammond lab graduate student Kimberly Bennett on becoming a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Gilliam Fellow in recognition of her outstanding research and commitment to making science inclusive, featured in MIT News, HST news, and UC Riverside news.


6/07/2023
Congrats to Hammond lab postdoc alum and close collaborator, Dr. Joelle Straehla on being awarded the prestigious 2023 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Awards for Medical Scientists.


5/24/2023
Professor Paula Hammond is awarded an honorary degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). As part of this honor, she will serve as the commencement speaker for the UMBC College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, College of Engineering and Information Technology, and Division of Undergraduate Academic Affairs Ceremony on May 25th, 2023.


5/18/2023
Professor Paula Hammond is awarded the James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award for her work designing novel polymers and nanomaterials.


5/17/2023
Congrats to Hammond lab UROP Victor Damptey on being awarded a Fulbright fellowship to study vascular grafts at the Chemical Institute of Sarrià in Spain.


5/15/2023
Congrats to graduate student Namita Nabar on winning the 2023 Outstanding ChemE Seminar Award.


5/8/2023
Joon Ho Park won 1st place in ChemE Teach-Off competition and was the Audience Choice Winner.


4/26/2023
Congrats to postdoc Joon Ho Park on winning first place for his poster at MIT polymer day.


4/25/2023
Dr. Celestine Hong’s work on nanoparticles to treat internal bleeding is featured on MIT News.


4/24/2023
Congratulations to Hammond Lab chemical engineering and program in polymers and soft matter graduate student Brandon Johnston for successfully defending his PhD thesis.


04/10/2023
Congrats to Hammond lab graduate student Kimberly Bennett on being awarded the Ford Foundation Pre-doctoral Fellowship.


04/06/2023
Congrats to Hammond lab UROP Victor Damptey on being featured in an MIT News story about his journey at MIT.


04/01/2023
Congrats to Hammond lab graduate student Kimberly Bennett and UROP Priya Ganesh on being awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships.


04/01/2023
Congratulations to postdoc Sasan Jalili for winning a KI image award for his image “Capture the Flag: Monitoring Disease-Associated Immune Activity“. In this image, microneedles are used to non-invasively sample biomarkers and immune cells from the skin. This allows a deeper understanding of how diseases affect the immune system. Immune cells are colored in purple and the microneedle coating is in gray.

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03/28/2023
Professor Hammond delivers the Fred Kavli Innovations in Chemistry Lecture at the American Chemical Society spring meeting.


03/20/2023
Professor Hammond’s biography is featured in the book “Meeting the Challenge: Top Women in Science” by Magdolna Hargittai.


12/26/2022
Graduate student Kimberly Bennett is featured in an MIT News article about improving the first-generation graduate student experience at MIT.


11/30/2022
Congratulations to undergraduate researcher Bhuvna Murthy for winning the Best Poster Award at the Materials Research Society (MRS) annual meeting’s Responsive Nanomaterials poster session.


11/29/2022
Congratulations to graduate student Justin Kaskow on winning the NSERC Postgraduate Doctoral Scholarship (PGS D).


11/15/2022
Congratulations to graduate student Ivan Pires on winning the Nanoscale Science & Engineering Forum (NSEF) Bionanotechnology Graduate Student Award at the 2022 AIChE annual meeting.


11/12/2022
Congratulations to undergraduate researcher Abby Dzordzorme for winning the Presentation Award at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Students in the Microbiology poster session.


11/9/2022
Congratulations to postdoc Gil Covarrubias on being named a 2022-2023 Koch Institute Convergence Scholar.


11/8/2022
Congratulations to Professor Hammond on being awarded the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Doing a World of Good Medal for her “leadership in creating opportunities for underrepresented minorities in science and engineering, and her groundbreaking research in medicine and energy.”


9/9/2022
Congratulations to Hammond lab undergraduate researcher Rachel Myers for being accepted to present at the prestigious Gulf Coast Undergraduate Research Symposium.


8/18/2022
Congratulations to Hammond lab graduate student Ivan Pires on being awarded an NIH F99/K00 from the National Cancer Institute for his project “Engineering Next-Generation Nanoparticles One Layer at a Time”.


7/31/2022
Congratulations to Professor Paula Hammond on being named a 2022 American Chemical Society (ACS) Fellow.


7/21/2022
Recently published work led by Natalie Boehnke and Joelle Straehla on the impact of nanoparticle chemistry on uptake of nearly 500 cancer cell types is featured in MIT News. (This above link includes direct free access to the article).


7/20/2022
Our STING Bio-protocol paper was selected among the Top 17 most viewed and downloaded immunology protocols of 2021. It was reprinted in the 2022 Bio-protocol series of reprinted collections – Immunology Selections.


7/14/2022
Congratulations to Hammond Lab chemical engineering graduate student Colin Bittner for successfully defending his PhD thesis.


6/8/2022
Recently published work led by Joelle Straehla on a microfluidic model of brain cancer that can be used to test the ability of tumor-killing nanoparticles to cross the blood-brain barrier is featured in MIT News.


5/19/2022
Collaborative work between the Hammond Lab at MIT, the Irvine Lab at MIT, and the Elias Lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital to use microneedle patches that can potentially detect ovarian cancer is featured in MIT’s Spectrum newsletter.


4/25/2022
Congratulations to Hammond Lab chemical engineering and program in polymers and soft matter graduate student Celestine Hong for successfully defending her PhD thesis.


4/8/2022
Congratulations to graduate student Eva Cai for being selected as the MIT Chyn Duog Shiah Memorial Fellow for 2022-2023.


4/4/2022
Congratulations to graduate students Namita Nabar, Mae Pryor, and Victoria Gomerdinger along with undergraduate student Emily Han for receiving the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) award.


2/17/2022
Postdoc Simone Douglas-Greene is featured on Edges and Nodes, a new video series that highlights the research and lives of minority scientists. You can check it out here.


2/17/2022
Congratulations to postdocs Sasan Jalili and Nicholas Lamson for being named 2022 Ludwig Postdoctoral fellows


2/16/2022
Graduate student Celestine Hong’s recent publication exploring the effects of nanoparticle size on intravascular hemostats is featured on the MIT News page. You can also find the original paper on the publications tab.


2/16/2022
Congratulations to postdoc Joelle Straehla on being named the Koch Institute Charles W. (1955) and Jennifer C. Johnson Clinical Investigator. You can find out more about her new role here.


1/3/2022
Professor Hammond is featured in a New York Times article on board diversity of public companies.