CHEMISTRY & BIOCHEMISTRY - Amid a global effort to transition to more climate-friendly biofuel options, a UO chemistry professor is helping develop carbon-free fermentation technology. Shannon Boettcher, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, received a $400,000, two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

CHEMISTRY & BIOCHEMISTRY - A certain class of enzymes are an important player in cell biology because they frequently mutate and become major drivers of cancer. Now, a research group including Scott Hansen have developed a blueprint for these enzymes and identified where a critical regulatory protein binds to the enzyme, a finding with potential to help boost the effort to build more specific cancer drugs.

Ten University of Oregon undergraduates had the chance to spend part of the summer honing their research skills through programs that offered a chance to pursue their own scholarly projects. The students were chosen for one of two types of research grants.

Twenty outstanding faculty members, the most since 2007, have been selected for the sought-after Fund for Faculty Excellence Awards for the 2021-22 academic year. The fund is designed to reward, recognize and retain world-class teaching and research at the UO.

The 14 fellowship recipients are pursuing projects in a range of disciplines, from conducting a study of the experiences and health of transgender people of color during COVID-19 to research that seeks to increase the accessibility of hydrogen fuel usage to an investigation of the effect of video-coaching interventions for early childhood caregivers.

CHEMISTRY & BIOCHEMISTRY - Ultrahigh resolution, high-speed imaging of fruit fly brains has allowed University of Oregon scientists to capture mechanical motions that stem cells use to make neurons, the cells that make up the brain.

CHEMISTRY - Geraldine Richmond, the UO’s Presidential Chair in Science and a much-honored professor of chemistry, has been nominated to serve in the Biden administration as undersecretary for science in the Department of Energy. Richmond is one of 16 people recently nominated by President Joe Biden for positions in his administration.

PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY & BIOCHEMISTRY - Nicole Wales will probably not be the only University of Oregon senior graduating this June with dreams of becoming a science professor. And there will also be others who represent the first in their family to attend college. What really sets Wales apart, though, are the challenges she overcame just to get to the university, let alone thrive as a scholar and researcher.