American Chemical Society Women Chemists Committee announces fall 2024 award winners

The American Chemical Society Women Chemists Committee (WCC) has named winners of their fall 2024 awards. Winners will be recognized at the WCC luncheon during ACS Fall 2024 in August in Denver. The Merck Research Award winners will present their research in a symposium on Aug. 18, and the Eli Lilly Travel Award winners will present their research in a poster session on Aug. 20.

Britney Baez, a joint chemistry-biology major and a rising senior at Harvey Mudd College, will be awarded the 2024 Overcoming Challenges Award. Baez is focused on her research in the Spencer D. Brucks group. Her team studies the relationship between polymer shapes and degradability, with the hope of making plastics easier to recycle. Baez was a recipient of an ACS 2024 Bridge Travel and Professional Development Award and was also recently named an ACS Scholar. Outside of the lab, Baez works as a campus tour guide and helps coteach an Introduction to Engineering course to inmates at the California Rehabilitation Center through the Prison Education Project. After graduation, she plans to attend graduate school in chemistry to study some flavor of organometallic catalysis.

Mya Soto, a senior biochemistry major at the Rochester Institute of Technology, will be presented the 2024 Priscilla Carney Jones Scholarship. Soto’s curiosity about science was sparked by the unanswered questions she encountered in enzymology during her late high school years, which coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This passion grew as she began doing research with Suzanne O’Handley, in whose lab she is currently investigating a haloacid dehydrogenase superfamily, phosphoglycolate phosphatase in Staphylococcus aureus, as a potential virulence factor. Soto has been actively involved in extracurricular activities such as fundraising, organizing scientific demonstrations, lecturing, and serving as a representative in clubs and organizations including the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Association for Women in Science student chapters.

The WCC Eli Lilly Fall 2024 Travel Awards, sponsored by Eli Lilly, will be presented to Shannon Cartwright of the University of Virginia, Leslie Castillo of Loyola University Chicago, Vasilisa Krivovicheva of Florida International University, Erin Mulhearn of the University of Delaware, Shivani Patel of Yale University, Andrea Quezada of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Malak Rayes of the Pennsylvania State University, Kristen Romero of San Diego State University, Laura Sawyer of the University of Arizona, Courtney Sever of the University of Florida, and Skylar Wappes of Indiana University.

Eight third-and fourth-year women graduate students will be awarded a WCC 2024 Merck Research Award, sponsored by Merck. The recipients are Alexis Gabbey of the University of Toronto, Camille Rubel of the Scripps Research Institute, Lauren McNamara of the University of Chicago, Dariia Yehorova of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Kaitlyn Keasler of Cornell University, Kaitlyn Varela of the University of Texas at San Antonio, Marisa Pacheco of the University of Florida, and Leah Roe of the University of California, Berkeley.

For more information on WCC awards and recognition, visit www.acswcc.org.