Dr. Mou Paul is a leading expert in the area of fundamental polymer science and its application towards sustainability and addressing pressing societal challenges. In her 18-years of academic and industrial research, Dr. Paul has contributed in advancing technologies in diverse research areas – spanning from fuel cells, water purification to sustainable packaging, modifiers for industrial and automotive applications and waste plastic recycling.
Her major contribution has been in inventing new generations of polyamide membranes which have been commercialized in several commercial reverse osmosis (RO) products. Dr. Paul is also a strong believer in collaboration and advancing fundamental science to drive innovation and solve world’s toughest problems. Her recent collaborative work in water purification membrane was featured as the cover page in Science this year. In addition to RO, Dr. Paul is also a leading expert in nanofiltration (NF) membrane technology used in specialty application areas. Dr. Paul has also recently worked on chemical modification of polyethylene that has wide ranging application in sustainable packaging, polymer recycling and as modifiers for enhancing the performance of engineering polymers in industrial applications.
Dr. Paul earned her PhD. in Macromolecular Science & Engineering from Virginia Tech. To date, she has filed 151 global patents with 53 of them granted so far. She has published and presented close to 40 scientific papers and presentations. She has been recognized with various awards including ACS’s Women Chemist Committee Rising Star award in 2020.