February 24, 2021
Head shot of Mei Shen on blue background

Professor Mei Shen has received the 2021 Arthur F. Findeis Award for Achievements by a Young Analytical Scientist from the American Chemical Society's Division of Analytical Chemistry. The award recognizes and encourages outstanding contributions to the fields of analytical chemistry by a young analytical scientist.

Professor Shen received a PhD from University of Texas at Austin under the direction of Prof. Allen J. Bard in 2011. Before joining UIUC faculty, Mei performed postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Professor Shigeru Amemiya at the University of Pittsburgh (2012), where she successfully imaged the ion flux across a single nanopore in an aqueous environment with nano-resolved Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy. 

At UIUC, the Shen Lab uses nanoscale analytical chemistry, electrophysiology, and electron microscopy to unravel the mysteries of brain communication and diseases with current research efforts focusing on development of novel, multifunctional, nanometer-sized sensor probes for the detection of a wide range of neurotransmitters and bioanalytes and their application in neuroscience and biology. The Shen Lab is also focusing on studying neurotransmission with nanometer spatial resolution, for example, interrogating single synaptic neurotransmission.

Shen is also affiliated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, Bioengineering and the Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology on the UIUC campus.

Recipients of the Arthur F. Findeis Award are selected based on one or more of the following outstanding accomplishments:

  • Conceptualization and development of unique instrumentation that has had an enabling impact upon analytical chemistry and has substantively advanced the field.

  • Development of novel and important analytical methods or methodologies that have found significant beneficial applications in the chemical sciences.

  • Elucidation of fundamental events or processes involved in or important to analytical chemistry.

  • Authorship of books, patents, and/or research papers that have had an influential role in the development of analytical chemistry.

  • Other significant contributions to the furtherance of analytical chemical sciences role in the use of chemical instrumentation.