Faculty Profile for Dr. Don Patterson

Biography Section

Biography and Education

Dr. Donald Eugene Patterson is an Associate Professor of Instruction in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Texas State University – San Marcos (2014 – present). His primary duties include instruction in Engineering Chemistry, General Chemistry and Advanced Inorganic Chemistry. He was one of the principal individuals that developed the current Engineering Chemistry curriculum. Just prior to joining the faculty at Texas State, Dr. Patterson founded and became President of Tweaked Spirits, LLC. (2013 – 2023). He also served as the Head Distiller for Tweaked. Prior to founding Tweaked, Dr. Patterson was a Principal Scientist at Nanohmics, Inc. - a high technology company based in Austin, Texas (2003 – 2012). His responsibilities there included supervising the hard optical coatings division, development of energetic polymers, anti-biofouling polymers, advanced microchip disabling devices, and research and development of diamond and other novel materials for advanced applications. Prior to Nanohmics, he was a Founder and Executive Vice President, Research for Extreme Devices, Inc. (1998 – 2003), a venture capital funded private company developing diamond-based field emission technology for the cathode ray tube (CRT) industry. As one of the Founders, he helped raise $35M in venture capital funding for Extreme. Dr. Patterson has also served as a Principal Scientist at Systems and Processes Engineering Corporation (1997 - 1998); the Director of Research and Development and a Senior Scientist for SI Diamond Technology, Inc., Houston, Texas (1991 – 1996); a Senior Research Scientist and Head of Diamond Thin Film Research at the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) in the Materials Science Research Center (MSRC), The Woodlands, Texas (1989 – 1993). Dr. Patterson received his B.S. with honors (1982) and M.S. degrees (1984) in Chemistry at the University of Texas at El Paso and subsequently earned a M. A. (1987) and Ph. D. (1989) in Chemistry at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Patterson is a 39-year member of the American Chemical Society and has belonged to several professional organizations (Society for Information Displays, SPIE, and AAAS). He also belongs to the honor societies of Sigma Xi and Phi Kappa Phi. Dr. Patterson also has served on the External Advisory Board for the PREM Center for Interfaces in Materials at Texas State University – San Marcos (2012-2014) and has consulted for a number of high tech businesses. Dr. Patterson has thirteen U. S. patents, a U. S. statutory invention, and is the author or co-author of over 75 publications and presentations.

Teaching Interests

General Chemistry, Engineering Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry

Research Interests

Diamond thin films, field emission, optical coatings, hard coatings, biologically active coatings