Marisa Kozlowski Named Ponzy Lu Endowed Professor of Chemistry

Marisa Kozlowski has been named Ponzy Lu Endowed Professor of Chemistry. Professor Kozlowski’s research focuses on the rational design of new methods and catalysts for use in organic synthesis. As well as using high throughput screening, her lab employs several novel computational tools for the discovery and optimization of new reagents and catalysts.

Kozlowski, who joined the Penn faculty in 1997, has been recognized with many awards and honors during her distinguished career. She was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012 and a Fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in 2013, and has been recognized as an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, as well as with the Dennis DeTurck Award for Innovation in Teaching in 2021, the American Chemical Society Cope Scholar Award in 2022, the Provost Award for PhD Teaching and Mentoring in 2023, and the Leete Award in 2023. She has served in several leadership roles for the Organic Division of the ACS and is currently editor-in-chief of Organic Letters.

P. Roy Vagelos, C’50, HON’99, and Diana T. Vagelos established the Ponzy Lu Endowed Professorship in Chemistry as part of their most recent record gift to fund science initiatives across the School of Arts & Sciences. The endowed professorship is named in honor of retired Penn chemistry professor Ponzy Lu, the founding director of the Roy and Diana Vagelos Scholars Program in the Molecular Life Sciences.

Roy Vagelos, a chemistry major who graduated from Penn in 1950 before going on to receive a medical degree from Columbia University, is the retired chairman and chief executive officer of Merck & Co. and the retired chairman of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Vagelos served as chair of the University’s Board of Trustees from 1994 to 1999. He is a former member of the Penn Arts & Sciences’ Board of Advisors and founding Chair of the Committee for Undergraduate Financial Aid. Diana Vagelos is a former member of the Board of Advisors at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

The Vageloses’ longtime support of Penn Arts & Sciences includes the Vagelos Laboratory for Energy Science and Technology, which will serve as home to the Vagelos Institute and the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research. Previous undergraduate science education gifts include the Roy and Diana Vagelos Scholars Program in the Molecular Life Sciences and the Roy and Diana Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management. They have additionally generously supported undergraduate scholarships and endowed professorships in the sciences.