Research Summary:

John Villarreal received his B. A. in Chemistry from Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos in 1969 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Texas A&M University, College Station in 1976. He was appointed as an instructor at Texas A&M in 1976. In 1977 he was appointed as Assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Texas Pan American. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1984 and became Professor in 1993. While at the University of Texas Pan American he served as interim dean of the College of Science and Engineering from 1994-1998 and from 2001-2003. He is currently serving as Assistant Dean of the College of Science and Engineering

He received the Distinguished Faculty Award in Teaching and the UT- Pan American Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Award. He was a Visiting Scholar Participant, Distinguished Professors of American Hispanic Descent at the Ohio State University in 1985.

Current research interest includes the synthesis and characterization of small, strained organic and heterocyclic ring compounds, and to use these target compounds in infrared and Raman spectroscopic studies to elucidate the structure of the ring systems.