Chemistry professor Grace Han awarded 2024 ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship
By Kathleen McMahan
August 13, 2024
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has awarded Grace Han the prestigious ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship. Established in 2013, this international award is given to only one or two outstanding scientists each year as a means to “recognize emerging scientists in the early stages of their careers and to raise the profile of the chemical sciences to the wider scientific community and the general public.”
Han is an associate professor of Chemistry at Brandeis. As this year’s recipient, she will be invited to speak at one or more high-profile international conferences. She plans to lecture on small molecules which can be used to harness solar energy.
According to her findings, these molecules undergo shape changes in response to light, allowing them to store energy for later use. Han hopes that these molecules could potentially lead to rechargeable and emission-free solar energy storage systems that could one day replace fossil fuels.
Student researchers in Han’s research group explore the interaction of light with various organic substances. “Our students have designed and synthesized the molecules in our lab and demonstrated the exciting properties of the novel compounds on a large scale,” Han said. “Big crises like global warming can be solved by chemistry and basic sciences, and we need the bright young generation to help us tackle these challenges.”
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