2021 Seaborg Award: Sherry J. Yennello

Current position: Regents professor of chemistry, Bright Chair in Nuclear Science, and director of the Cyclotron Institute, Texas A&M University

Education: BS, chemistry and physics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; PhD, nuclear chemistry, Indiana University

Yennello’s scientific role model: “Vic Viola, previous winner of the Glenn Seaborg award and my thesis adviser, who demonstrated every day that you could do excellent science and treat people with respect. He introduced me to lots of amazing science and the opportunity to contribute to discovering nature’s secrets. He was able to challenge people scientifically without making it personal and cultivate an environment where everyone was given the support they needed to reach their potential.”

What Yennello’s colleagues say: “Two aspects of Professor Yennello’s career are especially noteworthy: her leadership in the study of the dynamics and thermodynamics of excited nuclear matter, with special attention given to understanding the density dependence of the symmetry term of the nuclear equation of state; and her leadership in understanding and advancing the role of women in science, as well as participating in outreach to bring the best and brightest students to science in general and nuclear chemistry in particular.”—Walter Loveland, Oregon State University

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