Since 2014 The Wake Forest Department of Chemistry and the alumni group, the Wake Forest Friends of Chemistry, has sponsored two alumni awards, a Distinguished Alumni Award and a Young Alumni Award. The Distinguished award honors Chemistry alumni for their preeminent contributions and service to the advancement of any facet of the chemical sciences and who have a sustained and enduring record of achievement, recognized nationally or internationally, and who continue to exemplify WFU’s commitment to excellence in their contributions.
The Young Alumni Award honors Chemistry alumni under the age of 40, who have significantly contributed to any facet of the chemical sciences and continue to exemplify WFU’s commitment to excellence in their contributions.
We are proud to announce that the recipient of the 2023 Young Alumni Award is Dr. Lauren Rajakovich. Lauren received her B.S. in Chemistry from Wake Forest University in 2011, working in the laboratory of Patricia Dos Santos. Lauren earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology from Pennsylvania State University in 2017, working with Marty Bollinger, Jr. and Carsten Krebs, studying the mechanistic and functional diversity of non-heme diiron oxidases and oxygenases. Lauren completed postdoctoral training with Emily Balskus at Harvard University as a Merck fellow of the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation. There, her research focused on dietary nutrient metabolism by the human gut microbiota linked to cardiovascular disease. Dr. Rajakovich began current position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Washington in Seattle in January 2022, where her research program centers on further decoding the biochemistry of microbes living within the human gut. Despite the short time she has had to establish her independent career, Lauren’s work has already been recognized by the prestigious Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (R35) grant from the NIH to fund her explorations.
From her involvement as a judge at the American Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists, to her service as a guest speaker at the University of Washington Math Science Upward Bound Program, and as a mentor in the Women in Science Mentoring Program at Harvard University, Lauren’s commitment to service honors her alma mater’s spirit of Pro Humanitate, and is yet another reason we are proud to announce her as the 2023 Wake Forest Chemistry Young Alumni Award recipient.