Julia Kalow named Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar

Julia Kalow, an assistant professor of chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, is one of 16 honorees across the nation selected for the 2021 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. 

Kalow’s lab focuses on the interface of organic synthesis, polymer chemistry and materials science, with practical applications including sustainable polymers and responsive hydrogels for biomedicine. A guiding principle for her lab is “a detailed understanding of reaction mechanisms to drive optimization, discover new opportunities and uncover general insights.” 

“I'm grateful to the Dreyfus Foundation for this recognition, which is a testament to the creative and insightful work my research group has done, including during this past unusual and difficult year,” Kalow said. “They've pushed their projects forward by learning to plan around shift schedules, helping each other out, and even learning new skills like computational chemistry and coding. It's also a particular honor to be recognized as a teacher-scholar because teaching is a core part of my praxis, both in the classroom and in my lab, and it's also something that does not come naturally to me and that I've really worked at improving over the past five years.”

The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, a leading nonprofit devoted to the advancement of the chemical sciences, awards the unrestricted $100,000 grant to young faculty with a  demonstrated commitment to education, continuing outstanding contributions to both research and teaching. 

Kalow plans to use the award to send her grad students and postdocs to all the conferences they have missed out on due to the COVID-19 pandemic.