Professors Suzanne Blum and Jenn Prescher receive American Chemical Society awards
Professors Suzanne Blum and Jenn Prescher of the UCI Department of Chemistry. Both Blum and Prescher work to image molecules. One of Prescher's past Ph.D. students, Sierra Williams, who's now a professor at Claremont McKenna College, drew inspiration from the glow of fireflies for her imagine research.
The American Chemical Society recently honored both Professor Suzanne Blum and Professor Jenn Prescher of the UCI Department of Chemistry with their Arthur C. Cope Scholar award. The award comes with a $5,000 certificate and a $40,000 grant that the awardees can use to advance their research. “It is truly a testament to the hard work and creativity of lab members past and present,” said Prescher, whose lab researches ways of imaging molecules. “Working with students, postdocs and collaborators from all over the world is a complete thrill and my highest honor. Nothing can top the energy that comes from those interactions.” Blum’s lab also researches how to image molecules, as well as how metals play a role in organic chemical reactions. “It felt great for the scientific work to be recognized with this career-achievement award,” said Blum. “With scientific data, you do not always know you are on the right path to discovery immediately, because it can take time to deeply understand and interpret results.” ACS will be hosting an award symposium in August, 2023, at its national meeting in San Francisco. Both Prescher and Blum will give presentations on their research at the symposium.