Dr. Shelley Minteer, the Dr. Ken Robertson Memorial Professor in Chemistry and director of the Kummer Institute Center for Resource Sustainability at Missouri S&T, has earned the Galvani Medal from the Italian Chemical Society.

The medal, awarded by the board of the electrochemistry division of the society, is awarded internationally to recognize scientists for outstanding contributions to electrochemistry.

Minteer is the first woman to receive this award since it was established in 1986. She is an expert in electrochemistry, which is the branch of chemistry studying the relationship between chemical reactions and electricity. It powers modern technology through devices like batteries and fuel cells.

“The award notification was a pleasant surprise for me in my Monday morning inbox,” says Minteer. “I am honored to be selected for the Galvani Medal and I look forward to working with the society to continue to build a worldwide community for electrochemistry research.”

As part of the award, Minteer will attend the Italian Chemistry Days Conference in September in Milan, where an official award ceremony will take place. Minteer will then give the plenary lecture as the medal recipient.

“I cannot think of a more deserving researcher for this international honor,” says Dr. Mohammad Dehghani, chancellor of Missouri S&T. “Dr. Shelley Minteer and her team’s research at the cutting-edge of electrochemistry addresses some of the most critical global challenges. Her leadership exemplifies the spirit of innovation and collaboration at Missouri S&T and we are proud to celebrate this well-deserved recognition with Shelley.”

Since joining Missouri S&T in 2023, Minteer has been named to the 2024 class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, elected Fellow of the American Chemical Society, earned the 2026 Manuel M. Baizer award of the Electrochemical Society, and is leading a team that earned a $19.8 million National Science Foundation grant to lead the NSF’s Center for Synthetic Organic Electrochemistry.

Minteer is an expert in energy storage and conversion as well as the electrification of chemical manufacturing, a process known as electrosynthesis. She earned a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of Iowa and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Western Illinois University. She has authored more than 500 journal articles and presented at conferences around the world.

She began her teaching and research career in 2000 as an assistant professor of chemistry at Saint Louis University, where she held a joint appointment in biomedical engineering. In 2011 she joined the University of Utah as a Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative (USTAR) Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering to lead the USTAR Alternative Energy Cluster. In 2020, she was named director of the National Science Foundation’s Center for Synthetic Organic Electrochemistry at the University of Utah; she was named a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Utah in 2022.

The previous three recipients of the Galvani Medal include Dr. Philip N. Bartlett of the United Kingdom in 2015, Dr. Jean-Marie Tarascon of France in 2018 and Dr. M. Stanley Whittingham of the United States in 2023 – who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2019.

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.