Ana de Bettencourt-Dias, chemistry professor and department chair, was awarded for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Inorganic Chemistry by the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Specifically, de Bettencourt-Dias was recognized for her contributions to f-element chemistry and spectroscopy and for her service to the wide-reaching programming of the Division of Inorganic Chemistry (DIC). She was named a fellow of the ACS in 2021.

de Bettencourt-Dias has served in several positions within the American Chemical Society, including as chair of the Sierra Nevada section, councilor, program chair and member at large for the DIC, as well as chair and chair elect for the DIC subdivision of Coordination Chemistry and chair and chair elect of DIC. She has been active in the ACS since 2011, “so I have a long institutional memory,” she said.

de Bettencourt-Dias studies rare earth minerals, which are lanthanides and actinides or the “f-elements.” They play a big role in electronics.

“We need to have more effective ways of sourcing the rare earths,” she said. “As a country, we need to be investing in research to recycle that part of discarded electronics.”

As program chair, she has helped grow the f-elements session at ACS conferences from about a dozen talks to 100 talks and is responsible for coordinating the national meetings for the DIC. She takes care to ensure that the programming caters to academics at all stages, from undergraduates to leaders in the field.

de Bettencourt-Dias also helped launch the Periodic TableTalks, a monthly webinar series that started during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when she was past chair of the DIC. The series remains popular, with 100-200 people attending the virtual presentations. The presentations are also recorded, and those recordings are used by faculty, especially those at primarily undergraduate institutions, to help bring cutting-edge inorganic chemistry research to their students.

The presenters in each Periodic TableTalk are one established researcher and one early career researcher who have 20 minutes each to present their work, and they, as well as the audience, come from all over the world. These opportunities are valuable for early career and international researchers to get more exposure and experience talking to chemists in their field of interest.

“For early career faculty, when they go out for tenure, we request letters from the larger inorganic community for them,” de Bettencourt-Dias said. “The Periodic TableTalks help to highlight their research and who they are.”

In the future, de Bettencourt-Dias hopes to expand mentorship opportunities for early career faculty, especially as funding opportunities are reduced at the federal level.

The distinguished service award came with $5,000, sponsored by Strem Chemicals, which de Bettencourt-Dias will put toward bringing engaging researchers to the ACS conference.

de Bettencourt-Dias said she feels proud to have been considered for the award amongst a field of scientists at institutions often deemed to be more prestigious and feels fortunate because of how the University has supported her work.

“It's wonderful to have been considered,” she said.

de Bettencourt-Dias has been recognized by several organizations for her research and service. She was named the Susan Magee and Gary Clemons Professor of Chemistry and a Foundation Professor and won the University’s Outstanding Researcher Award. She is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

“These honors are the result of years of dedication to advancing chemistry,” Dean Louisa Hope-Weeks said. “We are proud to have Ana among our talented and innovative faculty members.”