Maria Hepel

Maria Hepel is an American chemist and SUNY Distinguished Professor at the State University of New York at Potsdam (SUNY Potsdam), where she served as a chair of the Department of Chemistry (2007–2015). She is known for her interdisciplinary research in nanoscience, electrochemistry, and environmental technologies. She received American Chemical Society Award for Research in 2017.

Early life and education Hepel earned a Master of Science (1969) and a PhD in Chemistry (1976) from Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, where she was hired as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry in 1976. She also completed postdoctoral training in chemistry at the State University of New York at Buffalo (1982) and in physics at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York (1985).

In addition to her tenure at SUNY Potsdam, Hepel held adjunct positions, including an Adjunct Full Professor at SUNY Buffalo's Chemistry Department from 2002 to 2012.

She has secured over $1.3 million in grants, advancing SUNY Potsdam’s research programs. Hepel holds memberships in the American Chemical Society (1981 – present), the Electrochemical Society (1980–present), and the Materials Research Society (1998–present).

Research Hepel’s research spans nanoscience, electrochemistry, and nanomedicine with applications in public health, environmental remediation, and energy technologies. Her research works on supercapacitors based on nanostructured materials resulted in the development of new energy technologies for electrochemical power sources. Hepel's interdisciplinary projects employ advanced instrumentation, such as atomic force microscopy (AFM), electrochemical quartz crystal nanogravimetry (EQCN), and Raman spectroscopy.

Selected publications