Keynote Speaker

Dr. Marcetta Y. Darensbourg#

Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M
Davidson Chair in Science
Lester Andrews Graduate Research Symposium Keynote Speaker

Professor Marcetta Y. Darensbourg is a native of Kentucky, USA with an undergraduate studies at Union College, Barbourville, KY and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. Following academic posts at Vassar College and Tulane University, she joined the faculty at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, in 1982. She holds the title of Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. Trained as an organometallic chemist in the laboratories of Professor Theodore L. Brown, and with earlier research specifically as intermediates in hydrogenase enzymes lured her into the new field of bioorganometallic chemistry. She has been a leader in the development of synthetic analogues of the diiron and nickel-iron hydrogenase active sites and the insight they bring to the catalytic mechanism of these natural fuel cell catalysts. Metalloenzyme active sites that catalyze carbon-carbon coupling reactions but use abundant metals usch as nickel also inspire her research activities.

Marcetta was an inaugural 2009 Fellow of the American Chemical Society. Dr. Darensbourg was also elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011 to the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2014 and the National Academy of Sciences in 2017. Most recently, she was selected by the Southeastern Conference as the 2018 SEC Professor of the Year and was honored as the 2019 ACS Williard J. Gibbs medalist.