Thomas Brunold, Joshua Coon, and David Lynn were selected for Kellett Mid-Career Awards for 2020-21. Awardees span the four divisions on campus: arts and humanities, physical sciences, social sciences and biological sciences.
“During these difficult times, it is a pleasure to be able to recognize our outstanding faculty who every day support the research, teaching, outreach and public service missions of the university,” says Steve Ackerman, vice chancellor for research and graduate education.
The awards are made possible because of the research efforts of UW–Madison faculty and staff. Technology that arises from these efforts is licensed by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and the income from successful licenses is returned to the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education. It’s used to fund research activities throughout the divisions on campus, including these awards.
Eleven faculty are appointed to WARF Named Professorships. The awards, which come with $100,000, honor faculty who have made major contributions to the advancement of knowledge, primarily through their research endeavors, but also as a result of their teaching and service activities. Award recipients choose the names associated with their professorships.
Eleven faculty have received H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowships, recognizing faculty within their first six years from promotion to a tenured position. The award is named in recognition of the late WARF trustees president H.I. Romnes and comes with $60,000 that may be spent over five years.
Ten faculty, including Brunold, Coon and Lynn, have been honored with Kellett Mid-Career Awards to support those who are seven to 20 years past their first promotion to a tenured position. The award was created to provide support and encouragement to faculty at a critical stage of their careers. The honor, named for the late William R. Kellett, a former president of the WARF board of trustees and president of Kimberly-Clark Corporation, comes with $75,000 that may be spent over five years.
Thomas Brunold, professor of chemistry, studies the geometric and electronic properties — and thus the reactivity — of metal centers in proteins and cofactors. He uses a number of physical and computational techniques to study enzymes and synthetic inorganic model complexes.
Joshua Coon, professor of biomolecular chemistry and Thomas and Margaret Pyle Chair at the Morgridge Institute, develops chemical instruments and methods to study protein structure, regulation and function. His lab uses these technologies to research a wide range of organisms, with implications for bioenergy and human health.
David Lynn, professor of chemical and biological engineering, chemistry and materials science. He designs and synthesizes new types of “soft” organic materials, including polymers, surfactants and more. Lynn and his research group have developed new materials with potential applications in advanced drug delivery and environmental sensing, as well as new approaches to control or prevent the fouling of surfaces by microorganisms.