Daniel Schmidt

Dr. Schmidt grew up in Savannah, Georgia, where, during high school, he discovered his love for chemistry.

At Carnegie Mellon University he was an undergraduate researcher with the CMU Buckyball Project, and performed research on sol-gel derived metal-ceramic composites for magnetic recording media.  He graduated with University Honors and simultaneous Bachelor's degrees in Materials Science & Engineering and Chemistry.

At Cornell University he joined the group of Dr. Emmanuel P. Giannelis, where he performed doctoral work on polysiloxane / layered silicate nanocomposites, as well as more general nanocomposite work and also some sol-gel chemistry.

He then accepted a post-doctoral position with BASF AG and moved to Strasbourg, France to become one of the first members of the newly formed BASF research group located in Nobel Laureate Jean-Marie Lehn's Institut de Science et d'Ingénierie Supramoléculaires (ISIS).  There, from 2003 to 2005, he developed a range of strategies for the production of nanoporous materials for thermal insulation, and generated a number of patents.

In 2005 he joined the Plastics Engineering faculty at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.  Here, his research concerns the production of polymer hybrids (including low and high inorganic content nanocomposites and preceramic systems), porous materials (including tissue engineering scaffolds, polymer-derived catalyst supports, and shape memory foams), and other sol-gel derived thermosets and network structures (including systems exhibiting controlled absorption and release).  His regular course offerings cover polymer science (junior level, lecture and lab), porous plastics and polymer nanocomposites (graduate level lectures).