Five early-career scientists will be receiving funding and opportunities for professional development after winning the 2017 Marion Milligan Mason Awards for Women in the Chemical Sciences.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science named five early-career professionals in the chemical sciences recipients of the 2017 Marion Milligan Mason Awards for Women in the Chemical Sciences, an award that comes with research funding as well as leadership development and mentoring opportunities.
Three of those honored at a ceremony at AAAS on 14 December are assistant professors in chemistry at Duke University, the University of Texas at Austin and Johns Hopkins University, one is an assistant professor in chemistry and biochemistry at Florida State University and another is an assistant professor of chemical engineering at Stanford. All are full-time career-track scientists in the chemical sciences.
First awarded in 2015 and funded by the Marion Milligan Mason Fund, the awards are designed to kick start the research efforts of early-career professional women in the chemical sciences.
The Marion Milligan Mason Fund provides grants of $50,000 to each female winner engaged in basic research in the chemical sciences.
The bequest was established by the late Marion Tuttle Milligan Mason and is intended to encourage women to become researchers in the chemical sciences. Female participation in the fields of chemistry and the physical sciences has long lagged that of men. Milligan Mason set up the award to honor the Tuttle and Milligan families, both of which were dedicated to the education and professional advancement of women.
Applications for the 2019 Awards will open in the Fall of 2017.
The five Marion Milligan Mason awardees are:
Livia Schiavinato Eberlin answers the question: What do you consider the moonshot research area of the future? | AAAS/Juan David Romero
Yan-Yan Hu answers the question: What do you consider the moonshot research area of the future? | AAAS/Juan David Romero
Rebekka Klausen answers the question: What do you consider the moonshot research area of the future? | AAAS/Juan David Romero
Elizabeth Sattely answers the question: What do you consider the moonshot research area of the future? | AAAS/Juan David Romero
- Emily Derbyshire, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Chemistry Department at Duke University with a secondary appointment in the Molecular Genetics & Microbiology Department. Her research group develops chemical tools and biological methods to uncover novel aspects of malaria parasite biology. The Derbyshire lab is motivated to address global health issues by working at the interface of chemistry and biology. Derbyshire was unable to attend the award ceremony at AAAS on Dec. 14.
- Livia Schiavinato Eberlin, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Chemistry Department at the University of Texas at Austin. She received her Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Purdue University under the mentorship of R. Graham Cooks, and pursued her postdoctoral research at Stanford University in the Richard N. Zare laboratory. Eberlin is passionate about research at the interface of chemistry and medicine. Her research group is focused on developing innovative mass spectrometry technologies to address critical problems in health-related research. In particular, the Eberlin lab applies refined mass spectrometry imaging and statistical tools to discover novel metabolic signatures of cancer with the goal of translating this technology to the clinic for rapid and accurate cancer diagnosis.
- Yan-Yan Hu, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Florida State University and an affiliated faculty member at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL). Hu’s current research focuses on employing advanced solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance techniques with unique capabilities available at the NHMFL to investigate fundamental chemistry associated with energy materials. She is particularly interested in interface chemistry and ion dynamics of organic-inorganic composite materials for energy harvesting, conversion and storage.
- Rebekka Klausen, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of chemistry at Johns Hopkins University. Her research group applies the principles of strategic organic synthesis to nontraditional targets including well-defined silicon nanomaterials and doped molecular semiconductors. The novel structures and insights arising from this work suggest opportunities for next generation electronic materials.
- Elizabeth Sattely, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of chemical engineering at Stanford. She began her appointment in January 2011 after completing a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard Medical School in the laboratory of Christopher T. Walsh. Sattely’s postdoctoral research focused on elucidating microbial pathways for making complex natural products. She earned her Ph.D. in synthetic chemistry in 2007 from Boston College with Amir H. Hoveyda, where she developed new methods for small molecule synthesis using molybdenum-catalyzed olefin metathesis. The Sattely lab focuses on the discovery and engineering of plant metabolic pathways.