John A Pojman

John Anthony Pojman (born May 29, 1962) is an American chemist and professor. He is known for researching frontal polymerization, nonlinear chemical dynamics, and polymeric systems. He is the Patricia Senn and William Senn, Jr., Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Louisiana State University (LSU) and the founder of Pojman Polymer Products, LLC. His work has applications in materials science, additive manufacturing, and microgravity polymer processing.

Early life and education Pojman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in North Royalton. He earned a B.S. in Chemistry with a minor in Classics from Georgetown University in 1984. He completed his doctorate in Chemical Physics at the University of Texas at Austin in 1988 under the supervision of Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine and James Whitesell. Pojman conducted postdoctoral research at Brandeis University with Irving Epstein from 1988 to 1990.

Career Pojman began his academic career at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) in 1990. His research focuses on nonlinear phenomena in polymers, including frontal polymerization—a self-propagating reaction process he pioneered for rapid material curing.

He has collaborated with NASA on microgravity experiments, including studies aboard the KC-135 aircraft and contributions to projects on the International Space Station. He personally flew over 800 parabolas on NASA's KC-135 microgravity research plane. He also developed an experiment that flew on the Blue Origins suborbital rocket. Pojman has organized symposia on nonlinear dynamics and polymer science for the American Chemical Society (ACS) and Gordon Research Conferences.

He also co-curated an exhibit on “Polymers in Art through the centuries” at the Louisiana Art and Science Museum.

In 2023, he received the Charles E. Coates Memorial Award, Baton Rouge ACS/AIChE. His work on miscible fluid interactions in microgravity addressed long-standing questions in fluid dynamics. He has published over 185 peer-reviewed articles and co-authored An Introduction to Nonlinear Chemical Dynamics (Oxford University Press). His cure-on-demand polymer processing innovations, based on frontal polymerization, have been applied to arts and crafts materials.

Pojman's development of QuickCure Clay, a sculpting material that hardens rapidly via heat-activated frontal polymerization, has been used in artistic applications such as repairing ceramics and creating textured paintings. Pojman is a co-inventor of a feral hog toxicant.

Personal

Pojman lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with his wife, Dionne M. Rousseau.

Awards 2023: Charles E. Coates Memorial Award. 2025:Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Selected publications

Books

Book chapters

Journals