2020 FELLOWS

Donna J. Nelson

University of Oklahoma

For distinguished service to Sigma Xi, other scientific organizations, and the public; and for contributions to understanding additions to alkenes in research and in teaching

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“I became a life member of Sigma Xi while I was a postdoc in 1981. Upon joining the faculty at University of Oklahoma, I rapidly became active in the OU Sigma Xi chapter and made efforts to keep the OU chapter active for almost 20 years by serving as chapter president, chapter delete for Annual Meetings, Southwest Region delegate, and Research & Doctoral Universities Constituency delegate.”

Biography

Donna J. Nelson, PhD, is an American chemist and professor of chemistry at the University of Oklahoma. Nelson specializes in organic chemistry, which she both researches and teaches. Nelson has focused on five primary topics of research, generally categorized in two areas, Scientific Research and America's Scientific Readiness. Within Scientific Research, Nelson's topics have been on mechanistic patterns in alkene addition reactions and on Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube (SWCNT) functionalization and analysis, yielding the first COSY NMR spectrum of covalently functionalized SWCNTs in solution. Under America's Scientific Readiness, she focuses on science education, which includes classroom innovations and correcting organic chemistry textbook inaccuracies, on ethnic and gender diversity (the Nelson Diversity Surveys) among highly ranked science departments of research universities, and on improving the image and presentation of science and scientists to the public. Nelson also served as a science advisor to the AMC television show Breaking Bad. She was the 2016 President of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

In addition to being the University of Oklahoma Sigma Xi Chapter president, Nelson administered the Sigma Xi annual chapter research award, administered the Sigma Xi annual chapter award for a high school science teacher, recruited and did paperwork for new chapter members, gave presentations and posters at Society-wide Sigma Xi meetings, took students to the Annual Meetings, gave presentations about joint ACS/Sigma Xi activities at ACS national and regional meetings, and served on Sigma Xi's Committee on Diversity from 2001–2004.

2020 FELLOWS

Donna J. Nelson

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