Jun receives ACS Midwest Award
Young-Shin Jun honored for outstanding contributions to chemistry by the American Chemical Society
Young-Shin Jun, the Anna McKelvey Professor in the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, has received the American Chemical Society (ACS) Midwest Award.
The award is conferred annually on a scientist who has made meritorious contributions to the advancement of pure or applied chemistry, chemical education and the profession of chemistry.
Jun also is chair of the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Committee on Science (COMSCI), leading efforts to champion frontier research in chemistry, formulate ACS policy statements and recognize outstanding chemists and chemical engineers. She has previously served as the chair of the Science and Technology Subcommittee and has been a COMSCI member since 2017.
Jun’s Environmental NanoChemistry Laboratory advances the understanding of nanoscale interfacial chemistry and solid nucleation to tackle key challenges in energy and the environment. She currently focuses on three critical areas: carbon dioxide chemical systems for energy innovation; novel technologies to recover critical elements, nutrients and valuable salts from unconventional resources; and nanomaterials synthesis and nanotechnologies for improving the clean water and soil. Her groundbreaking research significantly enhances the resilience of our society’s climate, water and energy.
Over her career, Jun has received numerous awards, including a 2008 Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, a 2011 U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER award, the 2020 James M. Lee Memorial Award, the 2022 Jackson Award, a 2022 Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors’ Distinguished Service Award, and an IUPAC 2025 Distinguished Women in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering Award, and the 2026 Engineer of the Year Award by the Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association (KSEA) and the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies (KOFST). She was named a 2015 Kavli Fellow by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a 2016 Frontier of Engineering Fellow by the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, a 2018 Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and a 2019 Fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Jun is an editorial board member of ACS ES&T Engineering, RSC Advances, and Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering. She is an advisory board member of Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts.
Jun will receive the award and present the Midwest Award Lecture at the 2026 Midwest Regional Meeting of the ACS to be hosted by Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, Oct. 25-27, 2026.
The American Chemical Society is a Congressionally chartered nonprofit organization and the world’s largest scientific society, with a membership of over 160,000 chemists and chemical engineers in the U.S. and worldwide.
