Chemistry professor honored with scholar award

Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) recently honored Justin Wilson, assistant professor of chemistry & chemical biology, as one of 24 recipients of the 2019 Cottrell Scholar Awards for his research, “Capturing the Heavy Alkaline Earth Elements: Ligand Design to Sequester Radioactive Strontium, Barium, and Radium.”

The winners were announced Feb. 11 and will be recognized at this year’s Cottrell Scholar Conference from July 10-12 in Tucson, Ariz.

“This Cottrell Scholar Award is a great honor,” Wilson said. “It will help me carry out both my research and educational objectives.”

The Cottrell award provides $100,000 to each recipient identified as a leader in integrating science teaching and research at a top U.S research university or a primarily undergraduate institution. The Cottrell Scholar program is intended to champion the very best early career teacher-scholars in chemistry, physics and astronomy.

Wilson’s research focuses on the utility of radioactive and non-radioactive metal complexes in medicine for both therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Wilson received his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a Seaborg Institute Postdoctoral Fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory

“In tying my research interests with my educational plan, I am excited to work to increase the coverage of nuclear chemistry within our department curriculum,” Wilson said.