Saranya Pullanchery Named Harthcock Chemistry Faculty Fellow

Texas A&M University chemist Dr. Saranya Pullanchery has been appointed as a Dr. Matthew A. '82 and Mrs. Patricia J. Harthcock Chemistry Faculty Fellow, effective Sept. 1, announced Dr. Lane A. Baker, professor and head of the Department of Chemistry.

Pullanchery, who joined the Texas A&M Chemistry faculty as an assistant professor in August 2024, earned her Ph.D. in chemistry in 2018 from Pennsylvania State University working with former Texas A&M chemist Dr. Paul Cremer. She completed a postdoctoral research appointment at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland (2019-2024) before coming to Texas A&M to begin her independent academic career. Her research interests lie at the intersection of soft matter, nonlinear optical techniques and analytical and physical chemistry with the aim of better understanding the molecular structure of interfaces.

“Understanding how molecules organize themselves at interfaces is a crucial challenge in biology, chemistry, materials science and many other fields,” Pullanchery said. “This thin boundary layer of molecules between two media is where most of the important chemical and physical processes occurring on our planet take place. In my research group, we work to implement uniquely interface-selective nonlinear optical spectroscopy and microscopy, using a range of analytical tools, to unravel the mysterious properties of interfaces and explore their potential applications.”

The Harthcock Chemistry Faculty Fellowship Endowment was created in October 2023 through the Texas A&M Foundation by Patricia and Matt Harthcock, a 1982 Texas A&M chemistry Ph.D. graduate, to support the teaching, research, service and professional development activities of early career faculty in the Department of Chemistry.

“Endowed faculty fellowships generate stipends that provide discretionary funds that enable rising faculty members like Dr. Pullanchery to focus on research,” said Baker, a 2001 Texas A&M chemistry Ph.D. graduate and inaugural holder of the Dr. Carl D. McAfee ’90 Endowed Chair in Analytical Chemistry. “By allowing us to attract the best and brightest minds to make new scientific discoveries and teach our students in innovative ways, these faculty awards impact the lives of people across generations.”

The Harthcocks say they were inspired by the vision of Texas A&M chemist and former department head Dr. Simon W. North to establish such a fellowship intended to heighten the department’s stature by enabling it to hire the best scholars as members of its faculty — a vital component in ensuring that Texas A&M students get the best education possible.

“We are so blessed, thankful and honored to be able to support the Department of Chemistry’s need for faculty fellowships,” Harthcock said. “You might think that Dr. Pullanchery is the one who feels the ‘best’ by being selected to receive the faculty fellowship, but I think we might be in the running for feeling even better to be able to award such a talented individual with some additional resources to help with her success and that of the chemistry department. The 12th Man spirit translates to academics as well!”

The Harthcocks’ gift will be recognized through the naming of Dr. Matthew A. ’82 and Mrs. Patricia J. Harthcock Organic Chemistry Instructional Laboratory on the fifth floor in the Instructional Laboratory and Innovative Learning Building (ILSQ), a state-of-the-art facility that serves more than 15,000 freshmen and sophomore students from majors and degree programs across the campus each year.

Baker noted that endowed faculty fellow positions represent a new approach for Texas A&M Chemistry that is being pursued by several of the department’s peer and aspirant institutions. Each appointment is intended to span three to six years, which is the time it typically takes for a faculty member to receive tenure. The fellowship then would be made available to recruit the next outstanding junior faculty member, helping to ensure continuing faculty excellence and success in an increasingly competitive landscape for attracting top-notch junior faculty.

“The Department of Chemistry competes with many highly ranked programs for junior faculty candidates,” Baker explained. “The name recognition associated with these endowed positions, in combination with the associated discretionary funds, provides an additional incentive to help us successfully recruit top-tier candidates. We are fortunate that Matthew and Patricia Harthcock committed to establishing the first of these positions, which helped us attract Dr. Pullanchery.”

While at EPFL, Pullanchery specialized in characterizing buried aqueous interfaces using nonlinear scattering techniques within the Laboratory for Fundamental BioPhotonics. Among her accomplishments, she successfully demonstrated the possibility of measuring the interfacial water structure to understand how water molecules order around nanometer-sized oil droplets.

“Dr. Pullanchery’s research represents a modern frontier in measurement and models of solvation, hydrogen bonding and charge transfer at interfaces,” Baker said. “Tools like the spectroscopy techniques she develops are changing our view of the role of water at a fundamental level. Understanding these fundamental processes is key to understanding a wide range of applications in chemistry, ranging from drug delivery to separations to biomolecular structure.”

Harthcock, a native of Springfield, Missouri, earned his bachelor of science in chemistry from Missouri State University and his doctorate in chemistry from Texas A&M under the mentorship of Texas A&M Professor Emeritus of Chemistry Dr. Jaan Laane en route to an accomplished four-decade career as a scientist, executive and visionary leader in the plastics and chemical industry. He held successive roles with The Dow Chemical (1982-1997); GE Plastics, which is now a part of Sabic (1997-2000); L&L Products (2000-2010) and Schneller LLC, an Ohio-based TransDigm Company (2010-2019), prior to retiring from the corporate world and founding his own consulting company, Solutions by Harthcock Associates, in 2019.

As an executive, Harthcock leverages his considerable experience, skills and passion for delivering positive continuous improvement in businesses to create innovative solutions and value for his clients. During the past decade, he and Patricia have done the same for Texas A&M students at both undergraduate and graduate levels through a series of gifts to the Department of Chemistry and College of Arts and Sciences, including the Dr. Matthew A. '82 and Patricia J. Harthcock Professional Development Symposium, the Dr. Matthew A. ’82 and Patricia J. Harthcock Science Leadership Scholars Endowment, the Dr. Matthew A. ’82 and Mrs. Patricia J. Harthcock Undergraduate Research Fellowship Endowment in Chemistry that was one of five lead gifts in support of the ILSQ and their most recent faculty fellowship endowment.

Harthcock is a member of the American Chemical Society, the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) where he serves as chair of the SPE Foundation Board, the Society of Automotive Engineers and the Phi Lambda Upsilon National Honorary Chemical Society. In addition, he is a member of the Texas A&M College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s External Advisory and Development Council, the Missouri State University Department of Chemistry Advisory Board and the MSU Foundation Board of Trustees Executive Committee.

“Being trained as a physical chemist and having the honor to work for four terrific companies where interfaces were studied and/or extremely critical to product success, it is great to have been able to meet Dr. Pullanchery and discuss her great research vision,” Harthcock added. “We wish her the very best as she begins her career at Texas A&M University.”

Learn more about Pullanchery and her teaching, research and service efforts at Texas A&M.