Paulette Clancy

Paulette Clancy is the Director of the Cornell Institute for Computational Science and Engineering. She served two terms as the William C. Hooey Director of the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University from 2002-January 2010. She was the first female Director of the School and the first woman to Chair an Engineering department in the College of Engineering at Cornell. A native of London, England, she graduated with First Class Honors from London University and received a D. Phil in Chemistry from Oxford University in Physical Chemistry. After post-doctoral research at Cornell and at London University, she joined the faculty at Cornell in 1987.

Her research laboratory is one of the leading groups in the country studying atomic- and molecular-scale modeling of semiconductor materials. Her team focuses on prediction and insight regarding the link between material design and properties, allowing them to suggest processing conditions and tailored materials to fulfill a desired set of constraints. Her primary current foci are novel materials for (a) photovoltaic applications for solar cells and (b) laser annealing of semiconductors and porous low-k materials.

She is the Associate Director of the Energy Institute at Cornell, having led the Energy Initiative with Professor Teresa Jordan from 2007-2009. Jordan and Clancy have spearheaded the creation of an undergraduate minor and a graduate minor field in sustainable energy. She co-chaired the development of a 10-year Strategic Plan in Energy for the College with Professor Jeff Tester. She was a member of the Provost's Commission on Sustainable Development, and is a Fellow of the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future. She is a member of the KAUST-CU Thrust on Photovoltaics and coordinates activities for the PV-Solar faculty team at Cornell. In March 2010 she was the co-chair of the computational panel of a DOE workshop, which prepared a report on Carbon Capture Strategies for Beyond 2020.