Appointment of James Cahoon as New Department of Chemistry Chair
July 1, 2024 | By UNC-Chapel Hill Chemistry Communication
We are pleased to announce the appointment of James Cahoon as the new chair of UNC’s Chemistry Department. He joined UNC Chapel Hill in 2011 and is currently a professor of Chemistry. His research at UNC has focused primarily to understand and control the physical properties of semiconductor nanomaterials through chemical synthesis. Cahoon earned his B.S. in Chemistry & Philosophy at the College of William and Mary in 2003 and his Ph.D. Physical Chemistry from the University of California-Berkeley in 2008. Before joining us at UNC he was an IC Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University.
Cahoon replaces outgoing chair Wei You, who is stepping down after 4 years of dedicated service. Since the summer of 2020 You has served as a guiding beacon during the tumultuous early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has led numerous initiatives to help keep the department safe, to increase our research and teaching capabilities, and to expand our inclusivity as a department. We offer our deepest admiration and sincerest appreciation to Chair Wei You for his service. It has been an honor to work with him in this capacity over the past four years, and we look forward to seeing the directions in which Chair James Cahoon will take us in the future.