Principal Investigator

Edmund F. Palermo
Associate Professor of Materials Science & Engineering

Ed is from Bay Shore, NY. He began his adventures in polymer science as a high school student under Prof. Miriam Rafailovich at SUNY Stony Brook. After completing a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering at Cornell in 2006, he moved to The University of Michigan and earned a Ph.D. in Macromolecular Science & Engineering, under the mentorship of Kenichi Kuroda, in 2011. Ed was also an NSF/JSPS visiting scholar at Nagoya University under Prof. Masami Kamigaito in 2010. Following a postdoc with Anne McNeil in Chemistry at Michigan, Ed joined the faculty at RPI in 2014 and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure in 2020. Ed is married to Gabrielle C. Todd and they have a daughter, Sophia, who was born in 2016. 
Awards and Honors
  • ACS PMSE Young Investigator
  • NSF CAREER Award, DMR-Biomaterials
  • ACS PRF Doctoral New Investigator Award
  • 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award

Senior Researchers

Dr. John Leman
Senior Research Scientist

Dr. Leman earned his BS in Chemistry from The University of Michigan and his PhD in Inorganic Chemistry at Harvard with Prof. A.R. Barron in 1993. Following a postdoc at UC Irvine in the W. J. Evans group, John was a senior staff chemist at GE Corporate Research & Development for 21 years. His work has encompassed inorganic synthesis; high-purity specialty chemicals (especially silica), fluoroelastomers, compound semiconductor crystal growth, organosilicon chemistry, silicones, 3-D printing, additive manufacturing, investment casting. He has been called a "walking encyclopedia of chemical knowledge". John joined RPI as a Research Scientists in 2021, working on TaOx contrast agents with Dr. Pete Bonitatibus in Chemistry. In 2023, he teamed up with the Palermo and Gilbert labs to develop translational micromolding and manufacturing processes for poly(pro-drug) based thermoplastics and thermosets.
Dr. Jay Saksena
Postdoctoral Researcher

Jay earned his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Tulane University advised by Prof. Douglas Chrisey, in 2023. He has a Master's in Bioengineering from University College Dublin as a Government of Ireland Scholar, and a Master's in Material & Nano-Science from Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Sorbonne in Paris as an Île-de-France Fellow. Jay has also trained as a Hemsley Fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. He joined the Palermo/Gilbert labs in 2023 to develop additively manufactured poly(pro-drug) implants for personalized treatments of spinal cord injuries and anti-inflammatory coatings for intracortical microelectrodes.  

Graduate Students

Yang Lou
Ph.D. pre-candidate in MS&E

Yang is from Zhejiang, China. In May 2020, she obtained her BS degree in Chemistry from Southeast University. As an undergraduate, she worked on polymer-liquid metal composites under the guidance of Prof. Jiuyang Zhang. She joined the Palermo group in January 2021 and passed the MSE qualifying exam a year later in January 2022. She is currently working with antimicrobial polymers, anti-biofilm coatings, and pro-drug network materials.
Nikita Waskiewicz
Ph.D. pre-candidate in BME

Nikita is from Clifton Park, NY and is a graduate of Niskayuna HS. She attended Mount Holyoke College and earned a BA in biochemistry in 2021. She is in the Biomedical Engineering PhD program and joined the Palermo lab group in fall 2021. Currently, she is working on medical applications of polymerized estrogen films.

Undergraduate Students

Rose - Curie Florestal
Undergrad in BME

Rose is from Stoughton Massachusetts, and she will be graduating with a B.S in Biomedical Engineering and a minor in biochemistry/biophysics in May 2024. She joined the Palermo group in Fall of 2022 and is researching poly(prodrug) materials. After graduation she plans on attaining her Masters in Biomedical Engineering.
Ethan Han
Undergrad in MSE

Ethan is from Dix Hills, NY. He will be graduating with a B.S. in
Materials Science and Engineering with a minor in Economics in May 2026.
He joined the Palermo group in Spring of 2023 and is researching
poly(prodrug) materials.
Cici Wang
Undergrad in MS&E

Cici is from Beijing, China. She will be graduating with a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering in May 2025. She joined the Palermo group in Summer of 2023 and is researching poly(prodrug) materials. 
Tommy Sobaski
Undergrad in MS&E
​
Tommy is from Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota. He will be graduating with a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering with a minor in Economics in May 2025. He joined the Palermo Lab Group in the Summer of 2023 and is researching poly(prodrug) materials.
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