Dr. Nathan I. Hammer was born in Johnson City, TN and was valedictorian of Franklin High School in Franklin, TN in 1994. He received an Honors B.S. in Chemistry Degree from the University of Tennessee in 1998 and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry & Chemical Physics under the direction of Prof. Bob Compton from the University of Tennessee in 2003. His doctoral research focused on resonant electron transfer processes, the creation and manipulation of very weakly-bound (0.5-50 meV) negative ions, and the interaction of light with chiral systems. His research resulted in a number of publications, including two in Physical Review Letters.

After graduation, Dr. Hammer joined Prof. Mark Johnson as a postdoctoral researcher (2003-2005) at Yale University, where he studied the spectroscopy of fundamental aqueous systems. This work resulted in 15 publications, three of which were in Science magazine, and was listed among Science’s Top 10 Breakthroughs of 2004. Dr. Hammer then served as an Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (2005-2007) working with Prof. Michael Barnes. At UMass, Dr. Hammer studied a number of fundamental nanoscale systems using single molecule spectroscopic techniques with publications in journals including Science and The Journal of the American Chemical Society. Important accomplishments include describing blinking suppression in quantum dot nanostructures, probing the chiroptical response of single molecules, and unraveling the origins of spectroscopic defects in organic light emitting diode (OLED) devices.

Dr. Hammer joined the University of Mississippi Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 2007 and received tenure in 2013. He received a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2010 to spectroscopically track the evolution of noncovalent interactions from the single molecule level to the condensed phases. As part of this grant he developed the department’s award-winning summer research program for undergraduates. Serving more than forty students each summer and one of the longest running in the nation, students from all over the Unites States are recruited to perform original research alongside UM chemistry majors and also partake in social and professional development activities. Dr. Hammer has served as principle investigator on seven grants from the NSF that collectively total over $7 million and he served as a UM Faculty Research Development Fellow. His research at UM has resulted in over 100 publications and has been featured on journal covers over a dozen times. He has directed the research of 15 graduate and nearly 100 undergraduate students. Of these, 40 have been members of the UM Honors College and three had their theses selected as the most outstanding of the year, with two receiving the National Portz Scholarship. One male and two female undergraduates also received prestigious Barry M. Goldwater scholarships.

Dr. Hammer was promoted to professor in 2019 and was named the Margaret McLean Coulter Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 2020. He received the College of Liberal Arts Award for Research, Scholarship and Creative Achievement for Senior Faculty in 2018, the UM Faculty Achievement Award in 2021, and the UM Distinguished Research & Creative Achievement Award in 2024. He teaches general chemistry, as well as physical chemistry graduate and undergraduate courses and the physical chemistry laboratory. He coordinates the department’s ACS-certified B.S. Chemistry degree and undergraduate research programs, chairs its annual student awards banquet, and has served as chair of the Ole Miss Local Section of the American Chemical Society in 2010, 2011, 2015, 2018, 2021, and 2025.