Organic Chemistry: Current Research
Open Access

Richard D McCullough

Biography

Richard McCullough was appointed vice president for research at Carnegie Mellon University in July 2007. In this new senior leadership position, McCullough will nurture interdisciplinary research initiatives and oversee sponsored research, technology commercialization and a number of cross-college research centers. Prior to this position he served as the dean of the Mellon College of Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He came to Carnegie Mellon in 1990 as an assistant professor and quickly rose through the tenure ranks, being promoted to associate professor in 1995 and professor in 1998. In 1998 he assumed the role of department head of chemistry. He was appointed dean of the Mellon College of Science in 2001.
On September 3, 2010, Rick was honored with the Thomas Lord Professorship in Chemistry.
McCullough is internationally known as the world′s expert in the area of printable electronics and is well-known for his discovery of regioregular polythiophenes- a material that led to plastic solar cells and plastic transistors.  His research focuses on the design and understanding of the structure-property relationships in conducting materials and nanoelectronics.  
 

Research Interest

Dr. McCullough is internationally known as the world′s expert in the area of printable electronics. Plextronics has received numerous honors, among them being named the 2008 Going Green Top 100 company and a Wall Street Journal Technology Award runner-up. In his 21 years at Carnegie Mellon, Dr. McCullough has been The Department Head of Chemistry and the Dean of Science before becoming Vice President for Research in 2007. Dr. McCullough has recently been named Thomas Lord Professor of Chemistry. He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from The Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. from the University of Texas at Dallas.