Professor Craig Anderson and Bard College Receive the Jean Dreyfus Lectureship Award to Bring Preeminent Chemist Donna Blackmond to Campus

Craig Anderson, Wallace Benjamin Flint and L. May Hawver Professor of Chemistry and Director of Undergraduate Research at Bard, and Bard College have received a 2023 Jean Dreyfus Lectureship for Undergraduate Institutions Award. The prestigious award provides an $18,500 grant to bring a leading researcher to a primarily undergraduate institution to give two lectures in the chemical sciences, one of which will be open and accessible to the general public. Chemical engineer and kineticist Donna Blackmond, who is best known for pioneering the methodology of “Reaction Progress Kinetic Analysis (RPKA)” for fundamental mechanistic studies of complex organic reactions, as well as for streamlining pharmaceutical process research, will give a series of lectures at Bard College during the Fall 2024 semester. Professor Blackmond currently serves as the John C. Martin Endowed Chair of Chemistry and Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Scripps Research Institute. During her visit to Bard, Blackmond will substantively interact with undergraduate students and faculty. The Jean Dreyfus Lectureship Award will also support summer research for two undergraduates who will be working with members of the Chemistry and Biochemistry Program during Bard College’s eight-week summer research program, Bard Summer Research Institute.
 
“We are extremely excited to receive this award that will allow our students access to such an elite research chemist like Professor Blackmond, as well as support novel chemistry research for two exceptional Bard students,” professor Anderson said. “I would like to thank my colleagues in the Chemistry Program and Karen Unger and Johnny Brennan in Bard’s Office of Institutional Support for their help and support in submitting this successful proposal. I especially would like to acknowledge Emily McLaughlin, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Associate Dean of the College, for her help in securing such a preeminent speaker through her extensive connections in the chemistry community.”
 
Donna G. Blackmond is recognized for her work in probing organic reaction mechanisms, particularly in asymmetric catalysis, and for investigations aimed at understanding the origin of biological homochirality. She was born in Pittsburgh, PA, and received her PhD in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1984. She began her career as an assistant professor in chemical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. She has also held academic positions in Germany (Max-Planck-Institut) and the UK, where she held Chairs in Physical Chemistry (University of Hull) and Catalysis (Imperial College London).  She has also worked in the pharmaceutical industry (Merck & Co., Inc). She is currently the John C. Martin Endowed Chair in Chemistry and Chemistry Department Chair at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California. Blackmond has been recognized internationally for her research including awards from the American Chemical Society, the British Royal Society, the German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft and the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung. She is an elected member of both the US National Academy of Sciences and the US National Academy of Engineering, as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Learn more about Blackmond’s research interests here.
 
Bard College is among eight institutions to receive a 2023 Jean Dreyfus Lectureship for Undergraduate Institutions grant. Learn more here.

Post Date: 11-17-2023