BS Carnegie-Mellon University, 1974
PhD Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1978

Research Chemist, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, 1978
Senior Research Chemist, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, 1982
Staff Chemist, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, 1985    
Assistant Professor - Department of Chemistry, Virginia Tech, 1987-1991
Associate Professor - Department of Chemistry, Virginia Tech, 1991-1995
Full Professor - Department of Chemistry, Virginia Tech, 1995-present
Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, Virginia Tech, 1998-2001
Acting Dean of the Graduate School, Virginia Tech, 2001-2002
Senior Administrative Fellow in Charge of University Restructuring, Virginia Tech, 2002-2003
Chair, Department of Chemistry, 2004-2010

Awards:

College of Arts and Sciences Certificate of Teaching Excellence, Virginia Tech, 1991
College of Arts and Sciences Certificate of Teaching Excellence, Virginia Tech, 1994
College of Arts and Sciences Certificate of Teaching Excellence, Virginia Tech, 1997
University Alumni Award for Teaching Excellence, Virginia Tech, 1997
Inducted into VPI Academy of Teaching Excellence, Virginia Tech, 1997

Special Citation from Virginia Tech President and Provost for Outstanding Planning and Leadership,  2003

The study of organometallic chemistry, an area that bridges inorganic and organic disciplines, has found remarkable utility in many diverse applications. Organometallic compounds themselves, which consist of metals bonded to organic groups, can teach us a great deal about fundamental bonding properties. The effect that binding an organic group to a metal has on that organic fragment's reactivity can be exploited in developing new catalysts for organic reactions. When it is difficult to study the reaction of a molecule on a metal surface in a heterogeneous catalyst system, it may be possible to infer how the reaction is taking place by studying suitably designed organometallic compounds as models. In our group, we try to take advantage of many of these properties of organometallic systems to study fundamental reaction chemistry, to design novel catalyst systems, and to use organometallic compounds as precursors to more complex materials.

1. Berg, Michael A.G., Ritchie, Melissa K., Merola, Joseph S.  Synthesis and Crystal Structures of 3-alkyl-2,4-pentanedionates and 3-phenyl-2,4-pentanedionate of palladium. Polyhedron, 2012, 38(1), 126-130.  DOI: 10.1016/j.poly.2012.02.024
2. Grieb, Arthur L.; Merola, Joseph S.  Reactions of [Ir(COD)(PMe₃)₃]Cl with heteroaromatic compounds: Formation of an iridathiacycle, an iridaselenacycle and iridaazathiacycles. J Organomet Chem, 2012, 713, 163-168.    DOI:  10.1016/j.jorganchem.2012.05.003
3. Merola, Joseph S.; Husebo, Trang Le; Matthews, Kelly E.  Aqueous Organometallic Chemistry of mer-Ir(H)2(PMe3)3X Complexes.  Organometallics, 2012, 31(10), 3920-3929.  DOI:  10.1021/om300140f
4. Merola, Joseph S.; Husebo, Trang Le; Selnau, Henry E.  Dinuclear Iridium Complexes with Unsupported Ir-Cl-Ir Bridges.Inorg. Chim. Acta. 2012, 390,  33-36.
5. Merola, Joseph S.; Franks, Marion A. The Basicity of [tris-(trimethylphosphine)(cyclooctadiene)iridium(I)].  J. Organomet. Chem. 723, 2013, 49. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jorganchem.2012.09.020.