Matthew S. Platz, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

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Matthew S. Platz became Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo on January 2, 2013. Platz is a native of New York City, and he obtained B.Sc. degrees in chemistry and mathematics from the State University of New York at Albany in 1973 and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Yale University in 1977. Following a post doctoral year at the University of Chicago, he joined the faculty of The Ohio State University as an assistant professor of chemistry in 1978. Platz was promoted to associate professor in 1984, to full professor in 1990 and served as department chair from 1994-1999. He won Ohio State University awards for distinguished teaching and research, and in 2001 Platz was named Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry. He also served Ohio State as a Vice Provost and Dean. From September 2010 through the end of 2012, Platz was on leave from Ohio State serving as Director of the Division of Chemistry of the National Science Foundation. At NSF, he led the development of a new program in Sustainable Chemistry, Engineering and Materials (SusChEM) and a new NSF-EPA joint program in Green Chemistry.

The Platz laboratory has been funded in the past by the NIH and the biotech industry. Platz maintains an active research laboratory which has been continuously funded by the National Science Foundation since 1979. The Platz laboratory studies the photochemistry of small organic molecules in media as diverse as simple organic solutions and in blood products used in transfusion medicine. His research has been recognized by the Cope Scholar award of the American Chemical Society and the Remsen Award. He has mentored well over a hundred undergraduate, graduate and post doctoral research students, published over 300 peer reviewed papers, edited two books, delivered over 200 invited lectures and holds over a dozen patents.