Dr. Shelley D. Minteer, founding director of the Kummer Institute Center for Resource Sustainability and professor of chemistry, earned the 2026 Manuel M. Baizer award of the Electrochemical Society (ECS), which honors outstanding contributions to the field of organic and biological electrochemistry. 

Minteer says the ECS gives out this award for contributions to electrosynthesis, which is a method of synthesizing chemical compounds by using electricity.  

“We started focusing on electrifying the chemical industry as a more energy efficient way to make chemicals that also minimizes chemical waste for a greener and more environmentally friendly strategy to make chemicals and pharmaceuticals, but I’ve only been working in that area for about seven years,” she says. “It’s great to be recognized for your lifelong achievements in a field that you’re new to.” 

The ECS will host an award ceremony and day-long symposium in honor of Minteer during the week of May 24, 2026, at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. She will give a talk before the symposium. 

“It’s awesome to be recognized and to have this symposium, because it’s an opportunity for me to recognize all of my previous graduate students and postdocs who worked on projects in the area and are now successful chemists themselves,” she says. “I get a chance to see them come and give talks in my symposium and see what they’re doing now, which is so great for an academic.” 

About Missouri S&T  

Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students located in Rolla, Missouri. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T offers over 100 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nation’s top public universities for salary impact, according to the Wall Street Journal. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit www.mst.edu.