News Date: July 1, 2025
New Associate Professor!
The Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at UC Santa Barbara cordially and enthusiastically welcomes Associate Professor Grace Han, who joined our department Summer 2025 on July 1st, 2025.
Dr. Han earned her PhD in Chemistry at MIT under the mentorship of Professor Timothy Swager, where she developed organic chromophores for photovoltaic applications. She continued her training as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT with Professor Jeffrey Grossman, investigating various designs and optical properties of organic and nanomaterials.
In 2018, Grace joined the faculty at Brandeis University, where she was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2024. Her research centers on molecular solar thermal energy storage, optically controlled recycling of materials, and light-driven phase transitions. Her group combines synthetic chemistry with photophysical and materials characterization to develop systems for photon energy capture, storage, and release.
Her contributions have been recognized with honors, including the Cram Lehn Pedersen Prize, the ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship, the Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the Sloan Research Fellowship, the NSF CAREER Award, the AFOSR Young Investigator Program Award, and the AAAS Marion Milligan Mason Award.