Donna Nelson

Donna J. Nelson is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oklahoma. Nelson specializes in organic chemistry, which she both researches and teaches. Nelsons career has focused on five primary topics of research generally categorized in two areas, Scientific Research and Americas Scientific Readiness. Within Scientific Research, Nelsons topics have been mechanistic patterns in alkene addition reactions and SingleWalled Carbon Nanotube functionalization and analysis. Under Americas Scientific Readiness, she focuses on science education, which includes classroom innovations and correcting organic chemistry textbook inaccuracies, ethnic and gender diversity among highly ranked science departments of research universities, and improving the presentation of science and images of scientists to the public, such as serving as a science advisor to the AMC television show Breaking Bad. In November, 2014, she was elected PresidentElect of the American Chemical Society.

Nelson was born in Eufaula, Oklahoma, a small town known for its Native American influences. Her father was the only physician in the town. She earned her bachelor of science degree in chemistry at the University of Oklahoma. She then obtained her PhD in chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin with Michael J. S. Dewar and did postdoctorate work at Purdue University with 1979 Chemistry Nobel Laureate Herbert C. Brown. Nelson then joined the University of Oklahoma as a faculty member. She was a Faculty Fellow in the University of Oklahoma Provosts Office from 1989 to 1990. Nelson was a Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2003 and in 2010. In 2016, she served as President of the American Chemical Society.

Source: Wikipedia