On March 26, 2012, Professor Gregory A. Petsko wrote on behalf of the Strage Award Selection Committee:

It is with great pleasure that I announce the recipient of this year’s Strage Award for Aspiring Young Science Faculty, Dr. Christine Thomas of the Chemistry Department.

Christine is one of the most promising young chemists in the country. In 2010, Prof. Thomas was selected for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Early Career Research Program and in 2011, she was named an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow. Christine is also the recipient of a 2012 National Science Foundation CAREER award and was selected as a 2012 Organometallics Fellow. Christine’s dedication to teaching was recognized with the 2012 Michael L. Walzer ‘56 Award for Excellence in Teaching at Brandeis.

Her research focuses on utilizing creative new strategies for the design of catalysts that have the potential to promote the multi-electron, multi-proton conversion of abundant small molecules (CO₂, CH₄, H₂, N₂, etc) into  useful fuels. The long-term goal of her program is nothing less than the development of solutions to the nation’s energy generation and storage problems. The catalysts she is currently designing all involve the cooperation  between different components of bifunctional catalysts. Specifically, her group is examining the cooperation  between (1) two metal centers in bimetallic frameworks, (2) metal centers and a non-innocent ligands, and (3) metal centers and their secondary coordination spheres, and the unique effects that such cooperation can have on the reactivity of these species.

Please join me in congratulating Christine on winning this award, and bring your students and postdocs t0 her Strage Award Lecture. The award ceremony and lecture will take place on Wednesday, April 3, in Gerstenzang 123 at 1:00 pm.