Dr. Mario Wriedt

In 2010 Maurine Johnson, wife of the late Dr. Francis “Frank” Johnson, UT Dallas’ first acting president, became a member of the Legacy Society with a planned gift intended to create the Francis S. and Maurine G. Johnson Distinguished University Chair in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Upon Johnson’s death in 2016 at the age of 97, her gift of $5.5 million became the largest planned gift in UTD’s history. In addition to establishing the original distinguished chair, the bequest allowed the University to create seven additional Francis S. and Maurine G. Johnson Chairs to support the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

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“We use modern X-ray diffraction techniques on a routine basis to elucidate important structure-property relationships of our materials at the atomic scale. The outcomes push our research to the next level.”

Dr. Mario Wriedt’s research is focused on the development and characterization of new metal-organic framework (MOF) and porous organic polymer (POP) materials whose applications address some of society’s most challenging energy, health and environmental needs.

MOFs and POPs are an emerging class of highly porous spongelike materials. Designed from molecular building blocks, they possess highly tunable pore environments that can be tailor-made to encapsulate defined guest molecules for diverse applications. For example, Wriedt is investigating the use of the materials to harvest water from low-humidity environments, to capture and sequester carbon dioxide from air and industrial gas streams, to remove pollutants from waste and groundwater, to detect viral genomes, and for drug delivery.

Wriedt’s goal is to establish UTD as a crystallography hub in Texas for advanced crystal structure analysis.

“We use modern X-ray diffraction techniques on a routine basis to elucidate important structure-property relationships of our materials at the atomic scale. The outcomes push our research to the next level,” Wriedt said. “Having mentored dozens of graduate and undergraduate students over the past years, students in particular value working with cutting-edge instrumentation such as the crystallography center’s Bruker Venture X-ray diffractometer.”

Wriedt’s educational activities are strongly informed by his research. His graduate-level carbon-capture class incorporates MOF and POP research results, and he regularly organizes highly sought after crystallography workshops, which draw students and researchers from across the nation.

Wriedt received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in chemistry from Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel in Germany. He was a postdoctoral visiting scholar at Texas A&M University for two years, then in 2013 he joined the chemistry and biomolecular science faculty at Clarkson University, where he was the Kodak CAMP Distinguished Professor until joining UT Dallas in 2023.

Wriedt’s research has been funded by the Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation and diverse industry sources. For example, he collaborates with Estée Lauder Companies on the development of advanced skin care products and with Corning Inc. on the design of advanced smart-glass materials.

An outdoors enthusiast, Wriedt has competed professionally in canoeing, run numerous marathons and competed in Ironman events.