Submitted by Dr. Michael Eze for the CASE Dean’s Newsletter:

Dr. Michael Eze is a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Bioanalytical and Environmental Chemistry, and the Head of the Metabolomics and Environmental Toxicology Laboratory at Missouri University of Science and Technology. He is a recipient of two doctoral degrees, namely, Dr.rer.nat. in Biology (with magna cum laude) from Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany (2021), and Ph.D. in Analytical and Organic Geochemistry from Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia (2021). Earlier, he obtained his B.Sc. (Honours) in Pure Chemistry, and M.Sc. in Analytical Chemistry. He has additional qualifications in pedagogy (PG Diploma in Education with Distinction) and management (PG Diploma in Management). After receiving his Dual-PhDs, he spent 18 months as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Davis, conducting research in mass spectrometry and metabolomics before joining Missouri S&T in 2023.

Research in Eze Group encompasses two major areas, namely (i) metabolomics and exposomics, and (ii) environmental toxicology and bioremediation. Specific themes include developing mass spectrometry-based metabolomics methods for plant and animal disease diagnosis, characterizing organismal exposure to environmental contaminants, and innovating ecofriendly remediation approaches for organic and inorganic pollutants. He has published more than 15 peer-reviewed research articles in leading journals such as Nature, Elsevier, and the Royal Society of Chemistry journals, and his research has been well received and featured in popular media within the chemical and environmental science research community. For example, his publication in RSC Advances was featured as one of the 2020 Hot Articles by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Similarly, following the publication of his novel bioremediation research in Nature Communications Earth and Environment, he was invited to write a Behind the Paper blog article for Nature Earth and Environment Community website.

Dr. Eze has received more than 20 awards, prizes and grants from various organizations around the globe, including the 2023 Early Career Travel Award of the Metabolomics Association of North America, the 2023 Early Career Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry, London, the 2022 Environments Travel Award, the 2022 Early Career Researcher Development Grant of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the 2021 Merrill W. Haas Memorial Grant of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Foundation, the 2020 Bernold M. Hanson Memorial Environmental Grant of the AAPG Foundation, the 2019 Otto Bayer Fellowship of Bayer Science and Education Foundation, Germany, the 2019 Carlos Walter M. Campos Memorial Award of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the 2019 Research Excellence Award of Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, the 2019 DAAD Research Grant, Germany, the 2019 Travel Award of the European Association of Geochemistry, the 2018 Tertiary Institution Grant of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia, and the 2017 Research Training Program Award of the Australian Government. In 2022, Dr. Eze was selected by the National Science Centre Poland as an international expert member of Panel NZ8 to review grant proposals for the OPUS-23 funding scheme.