Photo credit: EHB.

Joe Tanski earned his A.B. in chemistry from Vassar College in 1995. He received a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2000 where he worked in the field of inorganic chemistry with Peter T. Wolczanski. After completing a postdoctoral appointment with Gerard Parkin at Columbia University, he spent time as a substitute assistant professor at the City University of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice before returning to Vassar as a faculty member in 2003.

Dr. Tanski is the Principal Investigator on grants from the National Science Foundation NSF – MRI 0521237 (2005), NSF-RUI – 0911324 (2009), NSF-MRI  – 1526982 (2015) and NSF-MRI 2510326 (2026) supporting his research, a 400 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer and the single crystal X-ray diffraction facility.  At Vassar Dr. Tanski served as the Chair of the Chemistry Department (2018 – 2020 & 2011 – 2014), is a member of the Pre-Medical Advisory Committee, served as the Director of Asprey CCAS 2022-2025, and is currently serving as the Vassar Class of 2028 Advisor in the Dean of Studies.

Outside Vassar, Dr. Tanski completed two terms as a member of the US National Committee for Crystallography (2017-2021) and is currently the US National Chemistry Olympiad Coordinator for the Mid-Hudson Section of the American Chemical Society.

Chemistry “Bridge Building” opened January 2016!