Wayne State chemistry professor earns NSF CAREER Award to examine unusual chemical structures

Wayne State University's Jennifer Stockdill, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a $650,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. The CAREER Award is the most prestigious award given by the NSF and is designed to support junior faculty members who have shown exceptional promise through outstanding research, excellent teaching, and the integration of education and research by awarding assistant professors with five years of funding.

Stockdill's proposal, "Harnessing the Reactivity of Neutral Aminyl Radicals for Complex Heterocycle Synthesis," will advance understanding of reactions that form novel chemical structures. This research has numerous implications for understanding basic reactivity, increasing the diversity of complex molecules available to high-throughput screening libraries and ultimately aiding in the advancement of drug discovery.

The NSF funding will also support the implementation of an outreach program aimed at advancing women and minorities in science. Through Stockdill's program, these outreach activities will teach basic organic chemistry concepts to middle school girls, instilling an enthusiasm for scientific discovery, improving interactive learning tools for undergraduate education and creating a support network for graduate students in STEM fields.

"Receiving this CAREER Award signals that the organic chemistry community has recognized our lab's achievements and supports the continuation of our work," said Stockdill. "It's certainly an exciting time in the lab as we look forward to uncovering more chemical secrets, expanding the tools available for drug discovery and making an impact in our community."

The award number for this NSF grant is CHE-1554752.