What I've learned as associate dean at UC San Diego and department chair at University of Rochester. I recently sat down with a colleague, Emily, for an interview tied to her doctoral research on leadership in higher education. Specifically, the pathways and training that prepare faculty to lead. Her work centers on three questions: how department chairs and program directors describe their preparation for leadership, what challenges they encounter navigating faculty management, communication, and administrative work, and what training or support they find most helpful for success. What follows are my responses, drawn from my own experience as a department chair.My name is Darren Lipomi, professor and chair, Department of Chemical and Sustainability Engineering, University of Rochester. Please consider supporting my public advocacy for science by purchasing my book, from $9.99 and up, here:https://a.co/d/0akwfp3y Available for Spotify subscribers here:https://open.spotify.com/show/3uEY9jOwopxCyZ6DHAFkLE?si=23d46c1752bb419e

Duke University's professor Ben Wiley shares insights on his journey in science and startups in consumer electronics, 3D printing, and biomedical implants. Then, he and I discuss using AI in teaching and research.

Lately I've been doing a lot of early-morning AM radio spots in local markets: 700WLW in Cincinnati, WCUB in Wisconsin. I posted "my side" of what these radio hits look like. The prep, the environment, the difficulty of coming up with answers which are do not sound canned. I think science, particularly in the US, needs defenders. I'm just experimenting with the best way to do this and letting you in on the process. Cheers!**Correction: 600 thousand papers per year published in the US; not 600 : )My name is Darren Lipomi, professor and chair, Department of Chemical and Sustainability Engineering, University of Rochester. Please consider supporting my public advocacy for science by purchasing my book, from $9.99 and up, here:https://a.co/d/0akwfp3y Available for Spotify subscribers here:https://open.spotify.com/show/3uEY9jOwopxCyZ6DHAFkLE?si=23d46c1752bb419e

A talk I gave to undergraduate summer researchers at University of Rochester. Tips and tricks I use to manage my time and work with others. Hopefully something in this video saves you many times more time than it takes to watch it!Darren Lipomi, professor and chair, Department of Chemical and Sustainability Engineering, University of Rochester. Please consider supporting my public advocacy for science by purchasing my book, from $9.99 and up, here:https://a.co/d/0akwfp3y Available for Spotify subscribers here:https://open.spotify.com/show/3uEY9jOwopxCyZ6DHAFkLE?si=23d46c1752bb419e

There's a ton of controversy around the use of A.I. in the classroom. The New York Times just published an article effectively saying that indiscriminate dumping of A.I. resources into the California State University system was no good, while at the same time (now Dr.) Robert Ramji and I were teaching using an A.I. tutor based on a book that we ourselves wrote (Intro to Nanoengineering, Royal Society of Chemistry). We found that the results were mixed and the students' engagement with the tutor and their feelings about it were determined by how its use was framed by the instructors. Robert, along with myself and my colleague David Fenning, wrote an article about our experiences with the tutor in Chemistry of Materials. Here, I contrast some of the findings with those of the NY Times article.Robert Ramji, David Fenning, Darren Lipomi: Chemistry of Materials articlehttps://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.chemmater.6c00883New York Times articlehttps://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/magazine/ai-university-college-california.html?smid=url-shareFirst, please consider supporting my public advocacy for science by purchasing my book, from $9.99 and up, here:https://a.co/d/0akwfp3y Available for free for Spotify subscribers here:https://open.spotify.com/show/3uEY9jOwopxCyZ6DHAFkLE?si=23d46c1752bb419e

It's "pub week" for my book, Science Nonfiction: Behind the Scenes in University Research. I don't have a paywall, so if you've enjoyed my work or found it useful, I think you'll enjoy the book. Here, I talk a bit about it, and then read a few pages describing my PhD defense in George Whitesides lab at Harvard. Available in print and eBook and audiobook from all major distributors. Here it is on Amazon https://a.co/d/08XFxt3Q and Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3uEY9jOwopxCyZ6DHAFkLE?si=09745dff528444a0

In this episode I sat down (though at our standing desks) with the great Jen Heemstra. Jen is the Charles Allen Thomas Professor of Chemistry and Department Chair at Washington University in St. Louis. I learned, among other things, that Jen never planned to be a chemist. She was headed toward bioethics law when a night job in a stockroom changed her trajectory entirely. Now she runs a nucleic acid chemistry lab, chairs a major department, and has just published "Labwork to Leadership: A Concise Guide to Thriving in the Science Job You Weren't Trained For" (Harvard University Press), a book for STEM researchers used to working in isolation who suddenly find themselves responsible for the success of other people.We dig into how scientists end up in leadership roles they were never prepared for, what a department chair does and who they answer to when nobody is technically their boss, and how Jen went from "I could never write a book" to finishing one in 45-minute early-morning writing sessions spread across a few years and while moving between institutions. We also lament the loss of academic Twitter, where we are finding community now, and other topics I've been dying to ask her about. You can find out more about Jen and her book at jenheemstra.com. It's also available on Amazon and all major retailers. I couldn't recommend it more. Instant classic in STEM leadership.

I've launched my book! Science Nonfiction: Behind the Scenes in University Research. Available in print and eBook (release date 6/1/26) and audiobook (available immediately) from all major distributors. Here it is on Amazon and Spotify (free with paid Spotify).

In the last 10 years, I've posted many of my thoughts about getting into grad school. Here is the current state of my "wisdom," such as it is, now as department chair of chemical and sustainability engineering at the University of Rochester. Lessons learned from getting into Harvard, Stanford, Caltech, Berkeley, Scripps, and Columbia, and now having reviewed thousands of applications at large public and small private R1 institutions, and having had more than 20 undergraduate lab members get into "top-5" graduate programs.

Excerpt and commentary from my forthcoming book, Science Nonfiction: Behind the Scenes in University Research. Please subscribe for updates and more nuggets from the book!