Thao Tran Dominy, an assistant professor in the Clemson University Department of Chemistry, has received a 2025 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award.
Tran Dominy is the first Clemson faculty member to receive the award, which comes with an unrestricted research grant of $100,000.
The honor recognizes faculty within the first five years of their academic careers in chemistry, chemical engineering and related fields who have created an outstanding independent body of research and demonstrate a deep commitment to education.
“I view my role not only as a researcher but also as an educator committed to shaping the next generation of STEM leaders, through both teaching in the classroom and mentoring in research settings,” Tran Dominy said.
Tran Dominy’s educational philosophy has three pillars: instilling students with a sense of purpose and curiosity, developing interest in chemistry disciplines and providing academic, personal and professional development opportunities.
She actively collaborates with industry, academic partners and national labs to determine the knowledge and skills required of her students. Then, she said, she integrates that into her curriculum design and develops new courses to make her students ready for and attractive to the workforce.
She also wants to get her students interested in chemistry disciplines and mentors them in undergraduate research activities in collaboration with the graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in her lab.
Holistic approach
“We work together to help students approach science holistically — strengthening their understanding, sharpening their thinking and communication skills, and preparing them for their next steps,” Tran Dominy said.
Her undergraduate students are designing an inquiry-based animation, “Adventures in Materials Discovery,” to convey complex scientific concepts in an accessible, compelling manner. The animation covers each of the ages — Stone, Bronze, Iron, Silicon and Quantum — and discusses the chemical and physical properties of the associated material along with its limitations and how they led to the next material revolution.
“Learners get a glimpse of an otherwise unimaginable world through visual reality. Animation education enables students to engage, experience and participate in learning activities more effectively,” Tran Dominy said.
Lastly, Tran Dominy founded the Chemistry MENTOR (Mindful, Empowered, Nurtured, Thriving, Optimistic, Resilient) program, which creates a support system for academic, personal and professional development for undergraduate and graduate chemistry students.
Importance of mentoring
“Mentoring plays a vital role in student learning and success,” she said.
Tran Dominy has put together workshops on career opportunities, job interview skills, finite versus infinite mindset in higher education and effective scientific communication. Over the next few years, she wants to add a chemistry podcast and coffee chat with scientists, leaders and alumni to serve as a platform for connecting current chemistry students with contacts in industry, at national labs and in academia.
She is piloting the program within her lab but wants to expand it to the department level and, eventually, to the entire College of Science.
Tran Dominy’s research focuses on understanding the chemical bonding in quantum material.
She said if the potential of quantum materials could be unlocked by tuning their chemical bonding, electronic structure and behavior, it would revolutionize information and energy technology. But such advancements require controlling the chemistry of quantum materials to generate, store, process and transmit coherent information.
Tran Dominy’s lab focuses on developing a deep understanding of how chemical bonding and electronic structure result in targeted physical properties in new quantum materials and why such chemistry-property relationships exist.
Latest award
The Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award is one of many that Tran Dominy has received.
She received a prestigious Beckman Young Investigators Award from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation in 2023. She was the first recipient of the award from Clemson University and the first from a college or university in South Carolina. In 2024, Tran Dominy received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award focusing on a particular class of magnetic compounds that lack inversion symmetry in the structure and was named Clemson University Junior Researcher of the Year in 2024.
Earlier this year, she was named a Kavli Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Vietnam National University. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Houston. Prior to coming to Clemson, she completed a position as a postdoctoral research associate at Johns Hopkins University, Institute of Quantum Matter.
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