WOMEN IN CHEMISTRY
MADE FOR ACADEMIA
as a mentor t o her graduate students and postdocs. "My role is to help people to go farther and accomplish m o r e t h a n they ever thought imaginable," she says. Schepartz is immensely p r o u d of h e r students and their accomplishments. She is supportive of her students' choices and has seen t h e m move on to careers in acamany different reasons. It's immensely satdemia, industry and consulting. Two of the isfying, b o t h intellectually and creatively successful young w o m e n chemists highPlus, it offers a huge amount of personal lighted by C & E N n o t long ago, Mary Kay and professional flexibility," she says. H . Pflum and ArikhaMoses (C&EN, Feb. Schepartz is married and has two young 11, page 45), are recent graduates from children. Schepartz' lab. Schepartz w e n t on t o earn a Schepartz' research program P h . D . in organic c h e m i s t r y at Yale reflects broad interests from C o l u m b i a University in within t h e field of chemical bi1987 u n d e r R o n a l d Breslow. ology Early accomplishments T h e year t h a t Schepartz startinclude engineering a self-ased at Columbia, Jacqueline K. CELEBRATING sembling ionophore, developBarton began there as an assis75 YEARS ing p r o t e i n affinity cleavage t a n t professor. A c c o r d i n g t o OF THE ACS reagents and applying t h e m t o S c h e p a r t z , " B a r t o n was t h e n WOMEN p r o t e i n folding, a n d a c c o m one of t h e biggest rising stars CHEMISTSplishing structure-specific in chemistry, a n d t h e r e is n o COMMITTEE R N A recognition by tethered question that watching her rise oligonucleotides. to stardom had a deep and lasting impact on my career choice." W h e n asked about Currently, Schepartz' lab is interested working under Breslow, Schepartz says: in h o w cells effectively use a limited num"He was—and still is — an incredibly supber of proteins t o achieve a precisely conportive and inspiring mentor. Every day trolled and robust gene regulatory netI t r y t o support m y students as well as work, h o w this network is usurped w h e n h e did." cells succumb to viral attack, and how one can use these viral hijacking proteins as inUpon graduating from Columbia, spiration for t h e design of miniature p r o Schepartz worked teins that mimic (and sometimes surpass) for a year and a half t h e functional p r o p e r t i e s of p r o t e i n s as a N a t i o n a l Instifound in nature. I n this strategy, called tutes of Health postp r o t e i n grafting, essential r e c o g n i t i o n doctoral fellow with groups are grafted onto a small, well-foldP e t e r B. D e r v a n at ed protein core, producing a miniature California Institute protein that is preorganized for binding of Technology. As a another macromolecule. Schepartz' most mentor, Dervan, acr e c e n t w o r k has shown t h a t miniature cording to Schepartz, proteins can recognize the surfaces of oth"was fabulous, t o o . er proteins with high affinity and selecPeter has a remarktivity and thereby have enormous utility able ability t o c o n as proteomics tools for research in t h e vince y o u t h a t y o u postgenome era. can do anything." Among her many awards, Schepartz has W h e n she received received the ACS Arthur C. Cope Scholar an offer from Yale to Award in 1995, the Eli Lilly Award in Biobecome an assistant logical C h e m i s t r y in 1997, Yale's Dylan professor, Schepartz Hixon Award for Teaching Excellence in didn't n e e d m u c h convincing. I n fact, t h e N a t u r a l Sciences in 1 9 9 9 , a n d t h e Schepartz is a pioneer at Yale as the first feAgnes Fay M o r g a n Research Award in male full professor in any Yale physical sci2002. ence department. She has also led her laboratory into a leadership position in t h e field of organic chemistry This profile was written by C&EN Editorial Assistant Nick Wafle. W h a t Schepartz values most is her role
Yale University's Alanna Schepartz finds deep satisfaction in both research and mentoring LWAYS LOOK AHEAD,
"A
SAYS
Alanna Schepartz, w h e n asked what valuable lesson she has learned from h e r career. Ever since Schepartz first began to think about a career in academics upon graduating from the State University of N e w York, Albany, she has never looked back. Born in 1962 in N e w York City, Schepartz' earliest m e m o r y of her interest in experimentation is gleefully playing with miniature—empty—liquor bottles on airplanes while traveling with her parents. In these small bottles she would combine different amounts of salt, pepper, sugar, mustard, ketchup, and anything else she could get her hands on. She recalls always making a huge mess and getting into a t o n of trouble. But it was fun. T h i s childhood mixing and blending foreshadowed h e r later love of working in t h e lab, experim e n t i n g , a n d n o t infrequently having things go wrong—although usually n o t enough to get in trouble! Schepartz earned h e r B.S. in organic chemistry from S U N Y A l b a n y in 1 9 8 2 . She worked in chemistry professor Shelton Bank's lab from the summer of her s o p h o m o r e year t o h e r senior year. Until graduation, Schepartz had never considered a career in academia. But there was a send-off p a r t y in t h e lab, and as a going away gift she received aplastic briefcase with "Professor Alanna" hand-stenciled on it. Schepartz says, "I t h o u g h t it was just a sweet, funny p r e s e n t then, but looking back, it may have been the first time I thought about a career in academics." Reflecting on that path now that she is a chemistry professor at Yale University she believes that pursuing a career in academics was the best choice she could have made. 'All in all, it's a fabulous life for so HTTP://PUBS.ACS.ORG/CEN
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