Mei Shen will receive the Campus Excellence in Guiding Undergraduate Research Award of 2019. The Celebration of Teaching Excellence event will include an awards ceremony and reception on April 11th.
Shen joined the chemistry department in the fall of 2012 first as a postdoctoral researcher, and then as a Research Assistant Professor, a position which she currently holds.
Martin Gruebele, Department Head, said "Dr. Shen has been very active in classroom teaching. Her Chemistry 360 class, on chemistry of the environment and green chemistry, has turned into a hit with students over the last three years while Shen has honed her skills in the classroom. Now the class is usually oversubscribed. Likewise, she has been very active in outreach programs (e.g. at the Orpheum, Urbana HS)."
"Shen’s research area is ideal for undergraduate participation. She studies how signaling molecules move between synapses, sending signals from one nerve cell to the next. Her approach combines ultra-small volume electrochemical detection and mass spectroscopy to unravel how nerves signal. These experiments are very parallelizable, and for this reason undergraduate students have been able to participate in large numbers, " said Grueble.
Read the Illinois News Bureau's article here.