Karen I. Goldberg

Karen Goldberg is an inorganic chemist whose research interests are in the areas of mechanistic organometallic chemistry and catalysis. Her detailed studies of the mechanisms of fundamental organometallic reactions are informing the rational design and optimization of catalysts for important transformations that will provide new routes to produce fuels and commodity chemicals. Goldberg graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University (A.B) and then went on to obtain a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Following postdoctoral study at The Ohio State University, she was a faculty member at Illinois State University (1989-1995) and the University of Washington (1995-2017). In 2017, she joined the University of Pennsylvania as Vagelos Professor of Energy Research. She served as Director of the first Phase II National Science Foundation Center for Chemical Innovation, the Center for Enabling New Technologies through Catalysis (2007-2018) and is presently the inaugural Director of the Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology.