Assistant Professor Gwendolyn Bailey receives prestigious Beckman Young Investigator award

Bailey is one of only 12 early-career researchers nationwide to receive a prestigious 2026 Beckman Young Investigator award

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (06/11/2026) – Department of Chemistry Assistant Professor Gwendolyn Bailey is one of only 12 early-career researchers who will receive a prestigious 2026 Beckman Young Investigator (BYI) award. Awarded annually by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, the award supports the most promising young faculty members in the early stages of their academic careers in the chemical and life sciences, particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments, and materials that will open up new avenues of research in science.

Bailey joined the College of Science and Engineering faculty in 2021. Her research focuses on developing new methods to more efficiently convert water and waste — such as carbon dioxide emitted from industrial facilities — into value-added platform chemicals and fuels. Her group’s recent paper showed how they were able to stabilize one of nature’s most abundant and versatile molecules capable of promoting such transformations – without the need for the associated complex biomachinery that typically thwarts industrial application.

“I am profoundly grateful to the Arnold & Mabel Beckman Foundation for their support, and for their enduring commitment to funding transformative fundamental and translational research,” said Bailey. “The Foundation’s legacy of backing high-impact science is vital for pushing the boundaries of innovation and solving complex global challenges. I hope to build on the extraordinary legacy of Dr. Beckman and the Foundation’s previous awardees to empower the next generation of researchers in my lab to pursue bold, transformative discoveries.”

Prior to joining the University of Minnesota, Bailey was an NSERC and Resnick Sustainability Institute Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology. Bailey received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of British Columbia and her Ph.D. from the University of Ottawa. She has been previously recognized for her research and academic promise with awards including the ACS Division of Inorganic Chemistry Young Investigator Award, the Governor General of Canada Academic Gold Medal, and the Royal Society of Canada Alice Wilson Award.

Approximately 400 researchers applied for the Beckman Young Investigator award this year. Awardees receive $600,000 over four years to pursue cutting-edge research. Through the BYI award, the Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship, and the Beckman Scholars Program, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation Foundation supports today’s young scientists for tomorrow’s breakthrough discoveries.