Assistant Professor Mirica Wins National Teacher-Scholar Honor

Katherine Mirica, an assistant professor of chemistry at Dartmouth, has been awarded the 2020 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award.

According to the Dreyfus Foundation, Mirica and this year's 13 other award winners have created an "outstanding independent body of scholarship and are deeply committed to education."

The prize, awarded annually by the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation, supports the research and teaching careers of talented young faculty in the chemical sciences.

Mirica researches the molecular designs of multifunctional materials and works with responsive materials that support the unique demands of low-power, portable, affordable, easy-to-use electronic sensing devices. Her lab at Dartmouth creates innovations in materials chemistry that address global challenges in health care and environmental stewardship. 

"This award recognizes Katherine Mirica as one of the most accomplished teacher-scholar chemists of her generation," says Dean Wilcox, chair of the Department of Chemistry. "The Dreyfus Foundation is an important benefactor of academic chemistry, and we were delighted to learn about this honor for one of Dartmouth's rising stars."

As part of the award, Mirica receives an unrestricted research grant of $100,000 that can be used over a five-year period.

"I am incredibly honored and grateful to be a recipient of this prestigious award," says Mirica. "The discretionary nature of the funds will be very useful in supporting new research and pedagogical initiatives within my group and in the classes I teach."

Mirica received a Cottrell Scholar Award from Research Corporation for Science Advancement in 2019.

David Hirsch can be reached at david.s.hirsch@dartmouth.edu.