Fox Faculty Award
Sharon Neufeldt
Sharon Neufeldt, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the Department of Letters and Science, has won the Fox Faculty Award, which recognizes excellence in teaching, mentorship, research, scholarship and creativity. Sponsored by the Martin Fox Family and the Office of Academic Affairs and Provost, the award includes a $3,325 honorarium.
As a professor of organic chemistry, Neufeldt has demonstrated the ability to distill intimidating subject matter into a format that students can manage and feel enthusiastic about. She developed a student-centered special topics course that combines undergraduate research with training in the basics of computational chemistry. The course’s innovation was recognized with the Cottrell Scholar Award from the Research Corporation for Scientific Advancement. Neufeldt has won many other prestigious awards, including a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation, a National Institutes of Health Early Career MIRA award and a Thieme Journals award. This year, she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest award the United States government gives to outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their careers.
In a nomination letter, department head Joan Broderick wrote, “Dr. Neufeldt’s research focuses on controlling and understanding the behavior of transition metal catalysts used for transformations of organic molecules. Her group is one of only a few in the world that thoroughly integrates experimental and computational tools, within a single group, to approach research problems in organometallic chemistry.”
Since coming to MSU, Neufeldt has mentored 15 graduate students and 35 undergraduate or high school students, preparing them well for further success in undergraduate research, graduate programs or medical school.