Every year the Research Corporation for Science Advancement recognizes the nation’s most innovative young professors in the fields of chemistry, physics, and astronomy, through its Cottrell Scholars program. Among this year’s twenty-four recipients is Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Kana Takematsu, who will receive an award of $100,000.
The program is open to scholars from all US universities and colleges, meaning Takematsu was competing against professors from the nation’s top research universities. “I am very excited and honored to be named a Cottrell Scholar,” she said. “The award recognizes the importance of both scholarship and teaching in the pursuit of science, values that we hold dear at Bowdoin College.”
Takematsu was recognized for her research project Moving Multiple Charges with Light in Derivatized Naphthalene Photoacids.
She says the grant will be used “to support research on controlling the movement of charges for harnessing of solar energy and to promote the development of a community-based course on the role of chemistry in the common good.”
