Berkeley, CA
Spectroscopy announced this week that Markita Landry, UC Berkeley Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, has been named the winner of the 2020 Emerging Leader in Molecular Spectroscopy Award. The award will be presented to Landry at the SciX 2020 conference in October in Sparks, Nevada, where she will give a plenary lecture and be honored in an award symposium.
“Congratulations to Professor Landry on this amazing and well-deserved achievement,” said Mike Hennessy Jr., president, and CEO of MJH Life Sciences™, the parent company of Spectroscopy. “Landry is truly an extraordinary molecular spectroscopist and we are so honored to recognize her in front of her colleagues and peers at the SciX 2020 Conference in October.”
Landry is an assistant professor in the College of Chemistry at UC Berkeley. She is also a faculty scientist with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, an investigator at the Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub in San Francisco, and an investigator with the Innovative Genomics Institute in Berkeley.
Her laboratory’s research focuses on the intersection of single-molecule biophysics and nanomaterial-polymer science to develop new tools, such as near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probes, to characterize biological systems. Her research has generated nanoparticle-polymer conjugates for imaging and spectroscopic detection of neuromodulation in the brain, and for the delivery of genetic materials into plants for crop biotechnology applications.
Landry is a recent recipient of 18 early career awards from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, The Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, the DARPA Young Investigator program, the Beckman Young Investigator program, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She is also a Sloan Research Fellow and an FFAR New Innovator.
Selected by an independent scientific committee, the Emerging Leader in Molecular Spectroscopy Award recognizes the achievements and aspirations of a talented young molecular spectroscopist who has made strides early in their career toward the advancement of molecular spectroscopy techniques and applications. The winner must be within 10 years of receiving their Ph.D.