Doctoral Graduate Earns Young Chemist Award

Judy I-Chia Wu, a recent doctoral graduate from the department of chemistry, was one of six young chemists recently honored by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.

Wu, who earned her doctorate in 2011, was awarded the IUPAC Prize for her Ph.D. thesis work titled “Quantification of Virtual Chemical Properties: Strain, Hyperconjugation, Conjugation, and Aromaticity.” She was chosen from more than 40 applicants from 19 countries, and will receive a cash prize of $1,000 and a trip to the 44^th IUPAC World Chemistry Congress in Istanbul, Turkey, where her award will be presented during the opening ceremony of the Congress.

Her work focuses on designing and establishing reliable computational approaches for quantifying chemical properties that are thought to be non-measurable. In the process, she has reexamined and reinterpreted many fundamental explanations regarding the stability of molecules.

Wu’s dissertation advisor was Professor Paul von Rague' Schleyer, and she is currently a research professional in his group. She earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Tung-Hai University, Taiwan.

To learn more about Wu’s work, see http://www.iupac.org/news/cont/2012/dr-wu-quantification-of-virtual-chemical-properties-strain-hyperconjugation-conjugation-and-aromaticity.html.