Vicki H. Grassian MS, PhD

Grassian received her B.S. degree in chemistry from the State University of New York at Albany. From there, she did her graduate studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (M.S., 1982) and the University of California-Berkeley (Ph.D., 1987). Following postdoctoral positions, she began her independent academic career at the University of Iowa as an assistant professor. At Iowa, Grassian rose through the academic ranks and in 2010 was named the F. Wendell Miller Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry with appointments in the Departments of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and Occupational and Environmental Health.

She was also appointed the director of the newly formed Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute by the vice president for research, a position she held for a decade, and directed the Nanotoxicology Core of the NIEHS-funded Environmental Health Sciences Research Center in the College of Public Health. In 2013, Grassian became co-director of the Center for Aerosol Impacts on Chemistry of the Environment, a multi-institutional NSF-Chemical Center of Innovation headquartered at the UC San Diego campus. In January 2016, she joined the faculty at UC San Diego as Distinguished Professor with appointments in the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Nanoengineering, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography and holds the Distinguished Chair of Physical Chemistry within the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. In August 2016, she was appointed Associate Dean of Physical Sciences at UC San Diego.