Maria Tamargo is CUNY Distinguished Professor of chemistry at The City College of New York (CCNY). She also serves on the doctoral faculty of chemistry and physics at the Graduate Center, CUNY and electrical engineering in CCNY’s Grove School of Engineering. Prior to joining CUNY she was a Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Labs and Bellcore. Her research deals with molecular beam epitaxy of low dimensional layered materials and nanostructures of wide band gap semiconductors, topological insulators, and other materials. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2020. Tamargo is a principal investigator and director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) CREST Center entitled Center for Interface Design and Engineered Assembly of Low-dimensional Systems, or IDEALS that involves more than 20 researchers from CCNY and several partner institutions within CUNY and beyond. She is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the recipient of the 2017 MBE Innovator Award.

Tamargo served as dean of science at CCNY from 2001-2007 and was executive officer of the Chemistry Program at the Graduate Center, CUNY, from 2011-2014. She is recognized for forging the way toward an inclusive science and engineering research community. Tamargo earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University.