UW–Madison chemist wins young teacher-scholar award

Jordan Schmidt, assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is one of 15 young researchers to win prestigious 2014 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar awards.

“The intent is to support exceptional young academic researchers at an early and crucial stage of their careers,” says Mark Cardillo, executive director of The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. “They have been selected based on their independent contributions to both research in the chemical sciences and education.”

Schmidt, whose lab studies the structure and dynamics of complex materials used in fuels and energy production, will receive $75,000 in unrestricted research funding for his project, “Computational Modeling for the Properties of Complex Materials, with Applications to Energy and Catalysis.”

Since the program began in 1970, it has awarded more than $40 million to faculty in the chemical sciences within the first five years of their careers. The foundation, established in 1946 by chemist, inventor and businessman Camille Dreyfus in honor of his brother Henry, strives “to advance the science of chemistry, chemical engineering and related sciences as a means of improving human relations and circumstances around the world.”