Six Women Selected as Rising Stars in Academic Chemistry

The American Chemical Society has announced the 10 winners of its Rising Star Award. The awards given by the Women Chemists Committee of the American Chemical Society are restricted to women who have earned a terminal degree in the past 15 years. Recipients have “demonstrated outstanding promise for contributions to their respective fields.” The women will be honored at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego this coming March.

Of this year’s 10 winners, six have current affiliations with academic institutions:

Karelle Aiken is an associate professor of organic chemistry at Georgia Southern University. She has been on the faculty at the university since 2007. Dr. Aiken is a graduate of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and holds a Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire.

Anastassia N. Alexandrova is an associate professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles. She joined the UCLA faculty in 2009. The focus of her research is computational and theoretical design and multi-scale description of new materials. Dr. Alexandrova holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Saratov University in Russia. She earned a Ph.D. at Utah State University.

Amanda B. Hummon is the Huisking Foundation, Inc. Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. She joined the faculty at the university in 2009. Dr. Hummon is a graduate of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Illinois. Her research is focused on the proteomics of cancer cells.

Mindy Levine is an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Rhode Island. She is researching how molecules communicate with each other when they are not attached. Her research has practical applications in medical diagnostics and environmental contaminants. Dr. Levine holds a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jin K. Montclaire is an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the Polytechnic School of Engineering at New York University. She works to customize artificial proteins with the aim of targeting human disorders, drug delivery and tissue regeneration as well as create nanomaterials for electronics. Dr. Montclare is a graduate of Fordham University in New York and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in bio-organic chemistry from Yale University.

Jennifer A. Prescher is an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. Her lab focuses on the development of chemical tools and noninvasive imaging strategies to probe immune function. Dr. Prescher is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. She earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.