This is not common for a small chemistry department. This unusual feat was achieved by the three outstanding assistant professors in the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology. These three assistant professors, Frédérique Deiss, Sébastien Laulhé , and Ian Webb, all secured much coveted and competitive NSF CAREER grants in two successive cycles.
According to the National Science Foundation, “The NSF CAREER program is a Foundation wide activity that offers NSF’s most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization”. These three chemists are thriving as academic role models in the department, school, and beyond.
Dr. Deiss (pictured right), an electrochemist, received her award on the project entitled “Electrochemiluminescence in Microfluidics for Mechanistic Studies of Redox Reactions and Single Particle Sensing”. Her five-year grant started on February 1, 2022, for $651,000.
Dr. Laulhé (pictured left) whose project “Metal-Free C-C Bond Formation and C-O Bond Cleavage Mediated by Electron-Donor-Acceptor Complexes of Arenes” was funded this year (April 1, 2023) for $770,000. Dr. Laulhé is a synthetic organic chemist.
Dr. Webb (in the middle), a protein mass spectroscopist, received his grant on June 1, 2022, on the project entitled “Measuring the Structural Transitions of Electrosprayed Proteins”. His grant is worth $610,000.
All three grants are for five years. “The Department is in really good hands with young colleagues like these, and we are very proud of these accomplishments,” says Dr. Partha Basu, the Chair of the Department.