Montana State University

01/22/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 01/22/2025 14:27

Montana State chemist wins prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers

BOZEMAN - Sharon Neufeldt, an organic chemist at Montana State University, has received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor the United States government gives to outstanding scientists and engineers near the beginning of their careers.

An associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in MSU's College of Letters and Science, Neufeldt is known for her research on cross-coupling, which is a type of chemical reaction facilitated by certain metals, such as nickel or palladium. The reactions are used to form bonds between carbon atoms of two separate molecules to create new compounds that are useful in a wide variety of applications, including the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries.

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Sharon Neufeldt, an associate professor in the Montana State University Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has been awarded a Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering. MSU photo by Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez

In 2019, Neufeldt won a five-year, $675,000 National Science Foundation CAREER award to develop catalysts for more selective and efficient chemical reactions. She has since received funding to continue the research, which is ongoing in her lab. Her work aims to better understand the role of catalysts in controlling the selectivity of cross-coupling reactions.

Neufeldt explained that achieving a selective chemical reaction can be tricky because there are often two or more locations on one molecule where a second molecule can attach. Catalysts can facilitate the formation of particular bonds, making it easier for scientists to create the molecules they want to study - for example, a new class of possible drug molecules.

"Cross-coupling reactions are a very powerful class of transformation," Neufeldt said, "but there are still things we don't understand."

Neufeldt first learned she was a candidate for the PECASE last month, while proctoring the final exam for her Organic Chemistry II class. During the test, she checked her inbox and found what she thought was a fraudulent email stating that she was being considered for the award. Because she no longer had an active CAREER award - a requirement for PECASE nomination by the NSF - she didn't believe herself to be eligible.

"I was ready to report the phishing attempt to MSU," she said. "I separately emailed my NSF contact to say I thought it was a phishing email from her address. She replied that I was nominated in 2021, but it just took a while for it to be processed."

The eligibility question answered, she said she still was a little surprised.

"I am very proud of the work that my students have accomplished," said Neufeldt, who is currently working with eight doctoral students. "Almost all the work was done by my students, including the first students to join my group."

Joan Broderick, head of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, said Neufeldt is an outstanding researcher, mentor and teacher.

"She gives generously of her time to advance the mission of MSU in all her roles as a faculty member," Broderick said. "We are truly fortunate to have her as a colleague, and exceptionally happy that she is being recognized with a PECASE award."

Neufeldt joined the MSU faculty in 2016 after working as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. She earned her doctorate in chemistry at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and her bachelor's degree in chemistry at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.

She was one of 25 educators named to the 2020 class of Cottrell Scholars, an award honoring academic leadership and innovative research in the physical sciences. The same year, she received the Maximizing Investigators' Research Award through the NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences to support her fundamental research into developing and increasing the efficiency of organic chemical reactions.

As a postdoctoral researcher, Neufeldt received UCLA's first Cram Teacher-Scholar Fellowship and UCLA's Hanson-Dow Teaching Award.

As a doctoral student, Neufeldt won the University of Michigan's Research Excellence Award and the University Regents Award. As an undergraduate, before graduating summa cum laude, she won the outstanding senior award in the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences, a Provost's Scholarship and a Hooper Undergraduate Research Fellowship, among other awards.

In addition to ongoing NSF- and NIH-funded research, Neufeldt said, she and her students began new research this month into ways to break carbon-carbon bonds in plastics, such as polyethylene. That work is funded by MSU through the Research Expansion Funds Grant Program.

"Dr. Neufeldt's work is impressive, and it is a pleasure to support her with internal research expansion funds. These internal grants are for researchers who want to develop novel research methods that can lead to additional externally funded projects," said Alison Harmon, MSU's vice president for Research and Economic Development.

"I am delighted to see her win national recognition for her scholarship," Harmon added. "Like many of our top faculty, Dr. Neufeldt is not only an accomplished researcher, but also an exceptional teacher."