Alumna Elizabeth K. Neumann (Ph.D., '19) has received the Pittcon Achievement Award, which is an annual honor presented at the Pittcon Conference and Expo to recognize early-career scientists for outstanding contributions to analytical chemistry and/or applied spectroscopy.
Neumann was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow in the research group of Illinois chemistry professor Jonathan V. Sweedler and then was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University. Now, Neumann is an assistant professor in the Chemistry Department at UC Davis, where she joined the faculty in 2022. Her research focuses on understanding the molecular and cellular architecture behind complex and poorly understood human diseases. The research is highly interdisciplinary and involves developing analytical tools and multimodal imaging methods.
Neumann said her research uses matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI MSI) to measure hundreds to thousands of molecular features within a biological sample without disturbing their spatial content.
"We can then couple this chemically informative information to other powerful technologies, such as highly multiplexed immunofluorescence, spectroscopy, or transcriptomics, to get a more complete picture of complex biological systems," she said.
Recently, she has been honored with awards from ACS, ASMS, and Pittcon for her research activities as an early-stage investigator.