{{short description|American chemist}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Robin L. Garrell | image = File:Robin L Garrell Wiki photo credit Alex Irklievski.jpg | office = President of The Graduate Center, CUNY | term_start = August 1, 2020 | term_end = September 29, 2023 | predecessor = Chase F. Robinson | successor = Joshua Brumberg<ref>{{cite web |title=Joshua C. Brumberg Named CUNY Graduate Center President |url=https://www.gc.cuny.edu/news/joshua-c-brumberg-named-cuny-graduate-center-president |website=CUNY Press Release |access-date=25 June 2024}}</ref> | alma_mater = Cornell University (B.A.)<br />University of Michigan (M.S.Ph.D.) | occupation = University administrator, Chemist }}
'''Robin L. Garrell''' is an American chemist, academic and former president of The Graduate Center, CUNY. Until 2020, Garrell served as vice provost for graduate education and dean of graduate division at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Prior to this role, Garrell was assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh from 1984 to 1991, then joined the faculty in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at UCLA, where she became full professor and held a joint appointment in bioengineering.<ref name="UCLA2011">{{cite web |last=Waugh |first=Scott L. |title=Appointment of Robin L. Garrell as Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of the Graduate Division |url=https://evcp.ucla.edu/announcements/2010-11/appointment-robin-l-garrell-vice-provost-graduate-education-and-dean-graduate-division/ |publisher=UCLA |date=25 April 2011 |access-date=6 December 2022}}</ref> Garrell assumed her current position at The Graduate Center on August 1, 2020.<ref name="CUNYpress">{{cite press release |title=CUNY names Robin L. Garrell as The Graduate Center's next president |url= https://www.gc.cuny.edu/news/cuny-names-robin-l-garrell-graduate-centers-next-president |publisher=The City University of New York |date=30 March 2020 |access-date=6 December 2022}}</ref> On August 28, 2023, she announced that she would be stepping down as president of the CUNY Graduate Center effective September 29, 2023.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://gc.listserv.cuny.edu/Scripts/wa-gc.exe?A2=GCCOMMUNITYNOTICE;7ed48c4.2308p | title=CUNY Graduate Center }}</ref>
== Biography ==
A native of Detroit, Michigan, Robin L. Garrell received her B.S. degree in biochemistry with honors and distinction from Cornell University in 1978. While at Cornell, she worked with Stuart J. Edelstein to elucidate the structure of sickle cell hemoglobin fibers. Garrell enrolled in the PhD program in macromolecular science and engineering at the University of Michigan, where she worked with Samuel Krimm to develop surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy as a technique for characterizing adsorption at liquid-metal interfaces. Garrell earned her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan in 1979 and 1984.<ref name="faculty webpage">{{cite web |title=Garrell, Robin L. |url=https://www.chemistry.ucla.edu/directory/garrell-robin-l |publisher=UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry |access-date=31 March 2020}}</ref> She was then appointed assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh, the first woman on the chemistry faculty. Garrell joined the faculty of University of California, Los Angeles in 1991, going on to become full professor in chemistry. She also held a joint appointment in bioengineering and was a member of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI). She is currently professor and vice provost and dean emerita.
Garrell served as chair of the UCLA College of Letters and Science Faculty Executive Committee (2003–2007) and chair of the UCLA Academic Senate (2009–2010), as well as special assistant for strategic initiatives in the office of the vice provost for intellectual property and industry relations (2010–2011). From 2011 through 2020, she served as vice provost for graduate education and dean of the graduate division. While at UCLA, Garrell co-led a multi-year project in partnership with UC Davis and funded by the Andrew G. Mellon Foundation, to advance holistic admissions in humanities and social science doctoral programs. Through grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF IGERT Materials Creation Training Program, NSF AGEP California Alliance) Garrell advanced interdisciplinary training and developed longitudinal and interinstitutional mentoring networks that support the advancement of diverse STEM scholars into faculty careers.
In March 2020, Garrell was appointed the president of The Graduate Center, CUNY in New York City. She served as president of the CUNY Graduate Center from 2020 to 2023, during which time she helped the institution build upon its reputation as an innovator in graduate education and a magnet of state-of-the-art research.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Former Presidents |url=https://www.gc.cuny.edu/presidents-office/former-presidents |access-date=2025-12-21 |website=www.gc.cuny.edu |language=en}}</ref> During her tenure, the Graduate Center secured a $9.5 million donation for the school's Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality, funding for a new tuition-free master's program aimed at diversifying Astrophysics education and $3 million in additional annual funding to increase doctoral student stipends. In conjunction with the 60th anniversary of the Graduate Center, Garrell initiated the Images of Research juried exhibition to showcase student research, The chosen images are displayed on large banners on the outside of the building, and help to raise public awareness of the excellence of student scholarship across disciplines at the Graduate Center.<ref>{{Cite web |title=From President Garrell: Final Message as President |url=https://www.gc.cuny.edu/news/president-garrell-final-message-president |access-date=2025-12-21 |website=www.gc.cuny.edu |language=en}}</ref> Garrell led the creation of a new food pantry in Fall 2023 that serves students and staff at the Graduate Center and in the broader CUNY community.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Graduate Center Food Pantry Opens Sept. 12 |url=https://www.gc.cuny.edu/news/graduate-center-food-pantry-opens-sept-12 |access-date=2025-12-21 |website=www.gc.cuny.edu |language=en}}</ref> Garrell also fostered the creation and launch of the BRES Collaboration Hub at the Graduate Center in 2023. This was a milestone for us and CUNY, and defines the landscape for strengthening Black, Race and Ethnic Studies at the university.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BRES Collaboration Hub |url=https://www.cuny.edu/academics/current-initiatives/bresi/bres-collaboration-hub/ |access-date=2025-12-21 |website=The City University of New York |language=en}}</ref>
Garrell's leadership roles in science and higher education have included serving on and chairing the NIH Enabling Bioanalytical and Imaging Technologies Study Section, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Committee on Opportunities in Science, and the TOEFL Board of the Educational Testing Service (ETS), and also as a member of the ETS GRE Governing Board. In 2017, Garrell was elected to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC). She previously served as President of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (1999), and chaired the UCLA Academic Senate (2009–10) and the UCLA College Faculty Executive Committee (2003–2007). In the University of California system, Garrell led the development of system-wide policies on international activities, copyright and fair use. Garrell has served on the Advisory Boards of C&EN, Accounts of Chemical Research and Applied Spectroscopy, among other journals.
== Honors and awards == Garrell has received the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award (1985), Iota Sigma Pi Agnes Fay Morgan Award (1996), Gold Medal Award in the 2007 Masscal Pioneering Micro and Thermal Analysis Technology Competition,<ref name="faculty webpage" /> and the Benedetti-Pichler Award from the American Microchemical Society (2007).<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2007|title=2007 A.A. Benedetti–Pichler Award Symposium honoring Robin L. Garrell|url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0026265X07000057|journal=Microchemical Journal|language=en|volume=86|issue=1|page=1|doi=10.1016/j.microc.2007.01.004|url-access=subscription}}</ref> UCLA honors include UCLA the Hanson Dow Award for Excellence in Teaching (1997) and Herbert Newby McCoy Award for Outstanding Research (1995), both from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award (2003), the UCLA Gold Shield Faculty Prize (2009), the Graduate Students Association of UCLA James Lu Valle Distinguished Service Award for Administrators (2015), and the inaugural UCLA Centennial Award for Leadership in the Physical Sciences (2020). Garrell was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2002 <ref>{{cite web|title=Elected Fellows|url=https://www.aaas.org/fellows/listing|access-date=31 March 2020|publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science}}</ref> and Fellow in the Society for Applied Spectroscopy in 2009.
== Research ==
Garrell's research has centered on physical phenomena at liquid-solid interfaces, including adsorption, adhesion, wetting and electromechanical actuation. She pioneered surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy as a tool for characterizing the behavior of biomolecules at liquid-metal interfaces, determined structures and stabilities of self-assembled monolayers, and enabled widespread use of SERS in sensors and diagnostics. Garrell also made significant advances in droplet microfluidics, showed how electric fields can be used to manipulate liquids and perform reactions on-chip, and developed multi-step processing of biological samples for MALDI-MS proteomics analysis and preparing three-dimensional cell cultures for ''in situ'' assays.
Garrell's research on mussel adhesive protein was featured in two television documentaries: ''Biomimicry'' (written by Janine Benyus, directed by Paul Lang, produced by Michael Allder for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and based in part on the book ''Biomimicry, Innovation Inspired by Nature'', by Janine Benyus) and ''The History of Glue'' documentary episode in the Modern Marvels Series, History Channel (Actuality Productions, ©2005).
== Selected publications == * {{cite journal | last1 = Garrell | first1 = Robin L. | title = Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy | journal = Analytical Chemistry | date = 15 March 1989 | volume = 61 | issue = 6 | pages = 401A–411A | doi = 10.1021/ac00181a001 }} * {{cite journal | last1 = Herne | first1 = Tonya M. | last2 = Ahern | first2 = Angela | last3 = Garrell | first3 = Robin L. | title = Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy of peptides: preferential N-terminal adsorption on colloidal silver | journal = Journal of the American Chemical Society | date = January 1991 | volume = 113 | issue = 3 | pages = 846–854 | issn = 0002-7863 | doi = 10.1021/ja00003a018 | bibcode = 1991JAChS.113..846H }} * {{cite journal | last1 = Szafranski | first1 = Cory A. | last2 = Tanner | first2 = Weslene | last3 = Laibinis | first3 = Paul E. | last4 = Garrell | first4 = Robin L. | title = Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy of Aromatic Thiols and Disulfides on Gold Electrodes | journal = Langmuir | date = 27 May 1998 | volume = 14 | issue = 13 | pages = 3570–3579 | doi = 10.1021/la9702502 }} * {{cite journal | last1 = Moon | first1 = Hyejin | last2 = Cho | first2 = Sung Kwon | last3 = Garrell | first3 = Robin L. | last4 = Kim | first4 = Chang-Jin "CJ" | title = Low voltage electrowetting-on-dielectric | journal = Journal of Applied Physics | date = October 2002 | volume = 92 | issue = 7 | pages = 4080–4087 | doi = 10.1063/1.1504171 | bibcode = 2002JAP....92.4080M }} * {{cite journal | last1 = Shapiro | first1 = Benjamin | last2 = Moon | first2 = Hyejin | last3 = Garrell | first3 = Robin L. | last4 = Kim | first4 = Chang-Jin "CJ" | title = Equilibrium behavior of sessile drops under surface tension, applied external fields, and material variations | journal = Journal of Applied Physics | date = May 2003 | volume = 93 | issue = 9 | pages = 5794–5811 | doi = 10.1063/1.1563828 | bibcode = 2003JAP....93.5794S | s2cid = 17264712 | url = http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/8r52k80m }} * {{cite journal | last1 = Yoon | first1 = Jeong-Yeol | last2 = Garrell | first2 = Robin L. | title = Preventing Biomolecular Adsorption in Electrowetting-Based Biofluidic Chips | journal = Analytical Chemistry | date = 26 August 2003 | volume = 75 | issue = 19 | pages = 5097–5102 | doi = 10.1021/ac0342673 | pmid = 27669630 | bibcode = 2003AnaCh..75.5097Y }} * {{cite journal | last1 = Wheeler | first1 = Aaron R. | last2 = Moon | first2 = Hyejin | last3 = Kim | first3 = Chang-Jin "CJ" | last4 = Loo | first4 = Joseph A. | last5 = Garrell | first5 = Robin L. | title = Electrowetting-Based Microfluidics for Analysis of Peptides and Proteins by Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Mass Spectrometry | journal = Analytical Chemistry | date = 3 July 2004 | volume = 76 | issue = 16 | pages = 4833–4838 | doi = 10.1021/ac0498112 | pmid = 15307795 }} * {{cite journal | last1 = Chatterjee | first1 = Debalina | last2 = Hetayothin | first2 = Boonta | last3 = Wheeler | first3 = Aaron R. | last4 = King | first4 = Daniel J. | last5 = Garrell | first5 = Robin L. | title = Droplet-based microfluidics with nonaqueous solvents and solutions | journal = Lab on a Chip | date = 2006 | volume = 6 | issue = 2 | pages = 199–206 | doi = 10.1039/B515566E | pmid = 16450028 }} * {{cite journal | last1 = Moon | first1 = Hyejin | last2 = Wheeler | first2 = Aaron R. | last3 = Garrell | first3 = Robin L. | last4 = Loo | first4 = Joseph A. | last5 = Kim | first5 = Chang-Jin ?CJ? | title = An integrated digital microfluidic chip for multiplexed proteomic sample preparation and analysis by MALDI-MS | journal = Lab on a Chip | date = 2006 | volume = 6 | issue = 9 | pages = 1213–1219 | doi = 10.1039/B601954D | pmid = 16929401 }} * {{cite journal | last1 = Tucker-Schwartz | first1 = Alexander K. | last2 = Farrell | first2 = Richard A. | last3 = Garrell | first3 = Robin L. | title = Thiol–ene Click Reaction as a General Route to Functional Trialkoxysilanes for Surface Coating Applications | journal = Journal of the American Chemical Society | date = 5 July 2011 | volume = 133 | issue = 29 | pages = 11026–11029 | doi = 10.1021/ja202292q | pmid = 21728292 | bibcode = 2011JAChS.13311026T }} * {{cite journal | last1 = Fisher | first1 = Aaron J. | last2 = Mendoza-Denton | first2 = Rodolfo | last3 = Patt | first3 = Colette | last4 = Young | first4 = Ira | last5 = Eppig | first5 = Andrew | last6 = Garrell | first6 = Robin L. | last7 = Rees | first7 = Douglas C. | last8 = Nelson | first8 = Tenea W. | last9 = Richards | first9 = Mark A. | title = Structure and belonging: Pathways to success for underrepresented minority and women PhD students in STEM fields | journal = PLOS ONE | date = 9 January 2019 | volume = 14 | issue = 1 | article-number = e0209279 | doi = 10.1371/journal.pone.0209279 | pmid = 30625173| pmc = 6326412 | doi-access = free | bibcode = 2019PLoSO..1409279F }}
== References == {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.chemistry.ucla.edu/directory/garrell-robin-l Faculty website] {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garrell, Robin L.}} Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:Cornell University alumni Category:CUNY Graduate Center faculty Category:University of California, Los Angeles faculty Category:University of Pittsburgh faculty Category:University of Michigan alumni Category:American women chemists Category:21st-century American chemists Category:20th-century American chemists Category:American women academics Category:20th-century American women scientists Category:21st-century American women scientists