College of Arts and Sciences
Faculty & Staff Profiles
title
|
Name: |
Maria Caridad Gelabert |
Title: |
Professor of Chemistry |
Education: |
Ph.D., Physical Inorganic Chemistry, Cornell University M.S., Physical Inorganic Chemistry, Cornell University M.S., Physics, University of Houston B.S., Chemistry and Physics, Southwestern University
|
Office: |
314A Sims Science Building |
Phone: |
803/323-4939 |
E-mail: |
gelabertm@winthrop.edu |
Web: |
Dr. Gelabert's web page |
Area(s): |
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After receiving her
bachelor’s degree from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Dr.
Gelabert continued to graduate school in materials physics, then solid state
inorganic chemistry for her doctoral degree. Her doctoral work was the synthesis
and characterization of air-sensitive sulfide compounds, and her postdoctoral
work in the Ceramic Engineering Department at Rutgers University focused on
hydrothermal synthesis of ferroelectric materials.
Before joining the
Winthrop faculty in 2012 for the physical chemistry program, Dr. Gelabert held
a faculty position for 14 years at Wagner College, a small comprehensive
university in Staten Island, New York. At Wagner, she taught physical and
general chemistry, developed a variety of courses including the nonscience
majors’
Color Science, served as
department chair and first-year program director and developed an undergraduate
research program in hydrothermal synthesis.
Dr. Gelabert’s research
interests are about how crystals form at the most fundamental level. She
continues a hydrothermal program at Winthrop, the main objective on the
relationships between aqueous chemistry and crystal shape. Chemical systems of
study include zinc oxide and the biominerals calcium carbonate (calcite) and
calcium hydroxyl phosphate (hydroxyapatite).
Her work has been
supported by the Petroleum Research Fund, National Science Foundation and
Scientific Advocacy Network of SC EPSCoR. Dr. Gelabert has numerous
publications in both discovery and science education journals and has
contributed popular articles to the Wagner College student newspaper and alumni
magazine.