Faculty

Adjunct Professor of Chemistry

Email: rrford@phc.edu

Educational Background:

B.S. in Chemistry with a minor in Mathematics, University of Florida
Ph.D. in Chemistry, California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Time at PHC: 2023 to present

Dr. Rachel Ford is the adjunct professor of Chemistry at Patrick Henry College. She received her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with a minor in Mathematics from the University of Florida, and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). 

For her doctoral dissertation at Caltech, Dr. Ford investigated structure formation in multicomponent polymer membranes used for water purification, resource recovery, and catalysis, under the co-advisement of Julia Kornfield and Mamadou Diallo. In addition to teaching chemistry at PHC, Dr. Ford also works as a research chemist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Center for Neutron Research, where she uses small angle neutron scattering to understand aggregation and stability in multi-injection drug products, with an eye toward informing formulation design for the pharmaceutical industry.

Dr. Ford hails from Jacksonville, Florida and currently resides in Maryland near NIST. When neither teaching nor conducting chemical research, she is often spending time with fellow believers of Cascades Bible Church.