Assistant Professor of Chemistry Abhishek Chatterjee is a 2018 recipient of the prestigious Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, given to young scholars in the chemical sciences on the basis of scholarship and commitment to education.

Abhishek Chatterjee
Abhishek Chatterjee (Peter Julian)

Recipients of the awards are recognized for their scholarship and commitment to undergraduate education and are within the first five years of an academic career. The research accomplishments of the 2018 award winners span the broad range of contemporary research in the chemical sciences, according to the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation.

Ā ā€œThe Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award is the Dreyfus Foundationā€™s flagship program,ā€ said Mark Cardillo, the foundationā€™s executive director. ā€œThe award supports exceptional young academic researchers at an early and crucial stage of their careers. They are selected based on their independent contributions to both research in the chemical sciences and education.ā€

Research in Chatterjeeā€™s lab is focused on the development and application of methods enabling site-specific labeling of any chosen protein in a living cell with useful biochemical and biophysical probes to investigate its function in its native environment.

Chatterjeeā€™s research was titled ā€œA Genetically Encoded Toolset to Unravel the Roles of Post-translational Modifications in Human Biology.ā€

ā€œBeing named a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar places Professor Chatterjee in rarified territory,ā€ said Professor of Chemistry Marc Snapper, department chairman. ā€œIt was exciting for all of us in the department to learn that Professor Chatterjeeā€™s outstanding teaching and research efforts were being recognized in this manner.

ā€œNot only is it an important recognition for Professor Chatterjeeā€™s program, it is also a wonderful reflection on the outstanding training environment that we have created within the department.ā€

Each Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar receives an unrestricted research grant of $75,000. Since its inception in 1970, the Teacher-Scholar program has awarded over $49 million to support emerging young leaders in the chemical sciences.

ā€“University Communications | June 2018