Luis Campos

Louis Campos, PhD, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University, is our featured speaker at the CMA luncheon during the Spring 2018 ACS National Meeting in New Orleans. Campos’ research focuses on creating light-responsive materials that generate two pairs of charge-carriers when struck by a single photon. Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, he to Los Angeles California at age 11. He received a B.Sc. in Chemistry from CSU Dominguez Hills in 2001, and a Ph.D. from the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at UCLA in 2006 working under the supervision of M. A. Garcia-Garibay and K. N. Houk. At UCLA, he was awarded the NSF Predoctoral Fellowship, Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship, and the Saul & Silvia Winstein Award for his graduate research in solid-state photochemistry. Switching to materials chemistry, he went to UCSB as a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow to work under the supervision of C. J. Hawker at the Materials Research Laboratory. At Columbia, his group’s research interests lie in polymer chemistry, self-assembly, and organic electronic materials. To date, he has co-authored over 80 articles and 12 patents; and he has received various awards, including the ACS Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, ONR Young Investigator Award, NSF CAREER Award, 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, I-APS Young Faculty Award, the Journal of Physical Organic Chemistry Award for Early Excellence, and the Polymers Young Investigator Award. In addition to these research accolades, Luis has been recognized for his pedagogical contributions by the Cottrell Scholar Award, Columbia University Presidential Teaching Award, and the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. In 2016, C&E News named Campos one of the “Talented Twelve”, a nod to an assortment of extraordinary young chemists who are poised to make a splash.

Luis Campos is one of those exceptional cases that combines a top notch scientist with an even better human being. This was evident ever since he started college. I had the fortune to meet Luis about 20 years ago when he was just starting college. He took one of my classes and soon became a research assistant in my lab. Ever since he set foot in my lab, it felt like I was dealing with a graduate student or a postdoc. He started to come up with projects, great ideas and, to top it off, with some of the best jokes I have ever heard! I know the sky is the limit when it comes to Luis’s contributions to chemistry. I could not be happier for Luis’s success and also happy to call him a colleague and a friend.
Leonardo Martinez, PhD, Professor, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Interim Associate Dean, College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences
California State University, Dominguez Hills

I have never met Dr. Luis Campos but I recommended him as a speaker for the CMA Luncheon because of his reputation as a bright young minority researcher. He is part of the 2016 cohort of C&E News’ “Talented Twelve” honorees and one of only 2 people of color on that list. As a rather young scientist of color myself, I found it inspiring to see people like him included in that cohort.
Wasiu Adedapo Lawal, MS, AMRSC, Doctoral Student
University of Texas at Arlington
Earth and Environmental Science