Virgil Percec
P. Roy Vagelos Professor of Chemistry
Virgil Percec came to Penn from Case Western Reserve University, where he held the Leonard Case, Jr. Chair of Macromolecular Science and Engineering. Educated in Romania, he received his B.S. and M.S. from the Polytechnic Institute of Jassy and his Ph.D. from the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry in Jassy. Percec has served as a visiting professor at the University of Freiburg, the Royal Austrian Chemical Institute, the Max Planck Institute for Polymers, and others.
Percec is a remarkably active scholar and researcher who holds 26 American and European patents and has presented over 600 lectures in more than 30 countries. He has over 450 publications, including nine books, and serves as an editorial board member on 11 journals and is currently the editor or the Journal of Polymer Science: Part A: Polymer Chemistry. His research interests include polymer synthesis and modification, new organic polymerization reactions, reaction mechanisms, molecular recognition processes, molecular and supramolecular systems with complex architecture, and nature as a model for the design of nanoscale synthetic systems.
About the Donor
P. Roy Vagelos, C’50, PAR’90, HON’99, and Diana T. Vagelos, PAR’90
P. 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.
