Pat Limbach is a bioanalytical chemist with research interests in mass spectrometry, modified ribonucleic acids (RNAs), ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes and protein translation. After earning an undergraduate degree from Centre College in 1988, he studied under the direction of Dr. Alan G. Marshall at The Ohio State University. While there, his graduate research focused on instrumentation improvements to Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry. He received his PhD from OSU in 1992. He then took a postdoctoral position at the University of Utah working with Dr. James A. McCloskey. While in Utah, he worked in the areas of RNA chemistry and nucleic acid mass spectrometry.
In 1995, he joined the faculty at Louisiana State University as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1999. In 2001, he moved to the University of Cincinnati, being promoted to Professor in 2005. He served as Department Head in Chemistry at UC from 2005-2010, as Interim Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences in 2013, and as the Vice President for Research from 2016-2025. In 2026, he joined the faculty at Brown.
