Rate My Professor Vincent Rotello

Vincent Rotello is the Charles A. Goessmann Professor of Chemistry and a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He received his B.S. in Chemistry (Honors) from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1985, M.Phil. from Yale University in 1987, and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale University in 1990. Following an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1990 to 1993, he joined the UMass Amherst faculty in 1993 and has held his current positions recognizing his contributions to the field.

Rotello's research program applies synthetic organic chemistry to engineer interfaces between synthetic and biological worlds, spanning devices, polymers, nanotechnology, and bionanotechnology. His work includes developing nanomaterials for therapeutic delivery to mammalian and microbial targets, such as membrane fusion vectors enabling direct cytosolic delivery of proteins and nucleic acids for siRNA-based anti-inflammatory applications and Cas9/guide RNA complexes for CRISPR editing in vitro and in vivo. He has also created nanotherapeutics combining biofilm-penetrating polymers and essential oils to eradicate wound biofilms. Additional research areas encompass imaging, diagnostics, and nanotoxicology. With over 650 peer-reviewed publications, his scholarship has achieved nearly 90,000 citations and an h-index of 141. Rotello has received the NSF CAREER Award, Cottrell Scholar Award, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (2023), Langmuir Lectureship (2010), Bioorganic Lectureship of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2016), Transformational Research and Excellence in Education Award (2016), and recognition as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate (2014, 2015, 2018–2023). He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Royal Society of Chemistry. Rotello serves as Editor-in-Chief of Bioconjugate Chemistry and sits on the editorial boards of 14 other journals.