Northrop Professor Renee Frontiera receives 2024 Sara Evans Leader Award

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (10/10/2024) – In recognition of her significant academic accomplishment, advocacy work, and leadership contributions at the University of Minnesota, Northrop Professor Renee Frontiera has been awarded the 2024 Sara Evans Leader Award. The award, sponsored by the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, recognizes faculty and academic professionals who are leaders in the advancement of women or gender-marginalized people at the University of Minnesota through leadership, academic excellence, advocacy, engagement or program development.

Northrop Professor Renee Frontiera joined the UMN Department of Chemistry in 2013 and earned the title of full professor in 2023. Her research group focuses on developing and applying Raman spectroscopic techniques to determine how nanoscale local environments impact chemical reaction dynamics. The group’s research is highly interdisciplinary, investigating current problems at the interface of chemistry, biology, and materials science. The Frontiera group believes that science needs a diversity of views and experiences, and is committed to advocacy while providing an inclusive, collaborative, and respectful environment.

Frontiera is a committed teacher and mentor. She is currently serving as Director of Graduate Studies for Chemical Physics, and advises eleven graduate students, three undergraduate students, and two postdoctoral researchers. 

“Prof. Frontiera has been a natural leader in our Chemistry community from her earliest days as an assistant professor. With a clear sense of personal and professional mission and an impressive capacity to work toward that mission, she has led in a variety of official and unofficial roles, benefitting both our department and the broader Chemistry community. From a very early career stage, Prof. Frontiera has served on a large number of executive committees and advisory boards, does an impressive amount of outreach and faculty mentoring, organizes symposia, fundraises for new national awards, and edits scientific journals. Prof. Frontiera is a fitting exemplar of the Sara Evans Award because she truly leads by example.” – Department Head Christy Haynes

For excellence in research and education, Frontiera has been recognized with a number of awards, including the Time-Resolved Vibrational Spectroscopy Young Investigator Award (2023), being named a Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists, Finalist (2022), the American Physical Society Future of Chemical Physics Lectureship Award (2021), the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2019), the Guillermo E. Borja Career Development Award (2019),  the DOE Early Career Award (2017), the 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award (2017), the McKnight Land-Grant Professorship (2017 - 2019), and the NIH Maximizing Investigators Research Award (2016).

The Sarah Evans Leader Award Namesake

This award is named after Sara Evans, an outstanding scholar and pioneer in her field of history, as well as a campus leader in multiple venues, including leadership for women’s equity and social justice. Professor Evans’ research focused on the history of feminism as a social movement, motivated by her own involvement in civil rights, anti-war, and women’s rights activism. Named a Regents Professor in 2004 and Distinguished McKnight University Professor in 1997, Professor Evans served as Chair of the Department of History and Director of the Center for Advanced Feminist Studies during her tenure at the University of Minnesota. Quoted in 2005 as she was retiring, Sara remarked, "You need to learn the joy of asking a good question and finding out ways to the answer – that will lead you to your life's work." (From The Women’s Center)

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