Rate My Professor David Salas-de la Cruz

David Salas-de la Cruz is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Chemistry Graduate Program in the Department of Chemistry at Rutgers University-Camden. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez (2000), an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Villanova University (2007), and a Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania (2011). With more than 15 years of combined industrial and academic research experience, he previously worked at Kimberly-Clark, LifeScan (a Johnson & Johnson company), Dow Chemicals, and Holtec International. Promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2020, he also affiliates with the Center for Computational and Integrative Biology at Rutgers-Camden. In 2025, he received the Rutgers Torchbearer Award for leadership in promoting diversity and inclusion.

Salas-de la Cruz's research focuses on biomaterials, particularly polysaccharides and proteins, utilizing ionic liquids to explore structure-property relationships during coagulation processes for natural materials. His lab investigates morphology using X-ray scattering techniques and develops novel, tunable bio-based films and scaffolds for applications in medicine, environmental remediation, energy storage including biobatteries, and filtration membranes. He has secured substantial funding, including multiple National Science Foundation grants such as a three-year $385,978 collaborative award in 2021, a five-year $4,600,000 grant from NSF CMMI, and a three-year $344,609 DMR grant in 2018, as well as support from the American Chemical Society SEED program, ARMY REAP Program, New Jersey Space Grant Consortium, and Rutgers University. He has authored over 18 peer-reviewed publications, including 'A Hierarchical Model To Understand the Processing of Regenerated Cellulose Fibers' (Biomacromolecules, 2018), 'The Impact of Composition and Morphology on Ionic Conductivity of Hyperbranched Poly(ethyleneimine)-Polysaccharide Films' (International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2020), 'Protein and Polysaccharide-Based Fiber Materials Generated through Coagulation with Ionic Liquids' (Polymers, 2020), and 'The Role of Reduced Graphene Oxide toward the Self-Assembly of Ionic Liquid-Based Hierarchical Structures' (Frontiers in Chemistry, 2018). His scholarship has garnered approximately 1,930 citations. Salas-de la Cruz contributes to graduate education and mentors students who present at national conferences like ACS meetings.