Donald J. Darensbourg received his BS in Chemistry from California State University at Los Angeles in 1964 and his PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1968. After a brief time at the Texaco Research Center (1968-1969), he was an Assistant Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo (1969-1972) and a Full Professor at Tulane University (1973- 1982). In 1982, Professor Darensbourg joined Texas A&M University, where he has been a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry since 2010.
Professor Darensbourg has carried out pioneering work in green chemistry via utilization of carbon dioxide and other renewable resources in polymer chemistry. His efforts in carbon dioxide chemistry
have led to the development of polymerizations in which CO2 functions as both a monomer and a solvent and can co-polymerize with oxiranes and oxetanes. Darensbourg has also worked on the development
of ring-opening polymerization of renewable resources (e.g. lactides), as well as techniques for in situ infrared spectroscopy.
Professor Darensbourg has published four books and more than 350 papers and has served on the editorial boards of multiple journals. Darensbourg has received several awards and honors, including the
Texas A&M University Distinguished Teaching Award (1988), the TAMU Faculty Award for Distinguished Research (1990), and the ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry.