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.
Dr. Leslie B. Poole (B.A.’80, Ph.D.’88) embodies the very essence of the distinguished alumni profile, and so we are proud to recognize her as the 2024 WFU Friends of Chemistry Distinguished Alumni Award recipient. Dr. Poole’s remarkable accomplishments are not limited to one dimension: she is simultaneously a teacher, mentor, colleague, and world-class researcher, and this uncommon breadth of talent and professional commitment has brought recognition to our department and institution. The fact that Dr. Poole is a long-time member of the Wake Forest University faculty (in the Department of Biochemistry at the Wake Forest School of Medicine) means that we continue to reap the rewards of her exemplary life in science.
After graduating with her B.A. in Biology & Chemistry from WFU in 1980, Leslie served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer (in Bingkor, Sabah, East Malaysia), exemplifying the spirit of “Pro Humanitate.” She returned to Wake, completing her Ph.D. in Biochemistry (with A. Claiborne) in 1988 before embarking on a three-year postdoc at the University of Maryland-College Park. Wake Forest was lucky to have Dr. Poole return again in 1992, this time as a member of the faculty in the Department of Biochemistry at the School of Medicine, where she has worked ever since, advancing to the position of full professor, and having served in numerous administrative roles, including Director of the Center for Structural Biology and Co-Director of the Center for Redox Biology & Medicine.
Leslie is an international expert in oxidation/reduction (redox) control of protein and enzyme function. Her early work defined the chemistry and biochemistry of redox reactions of thiols of biological importance. Over time, she has extended these ideas to signaling pathways mediated by redox species, especially hydrogen peroxide. Her work provides the basis of new therapies and the development of new tools for the detection of these redox species and redox modified proteins. Dr. Poole’s pre-imminence in this area is underscored by her 150 peer-reviewed publications and 23 invited book chapters/commentaries, along with her service on the editorial board of two distinguished journals. Her extramural funding record is phenomenal, having been awarded more than $16M in support of her research to date, with 94% of this from highly competitive National Institutes of Health grants. Furthermore, Leslie’s work is involved in 9 patents, one of which led to the creation of the small business Xoder Tech, LLC, which has gained recognition as a Women Owned Small Business from the US government.
Above and beyond her distinguished research record, Dr. Poole is a compassionate and collaborative colleague and mentor, and an unselfishly serving citizen of the university and her professional community. From symposium organizer to Ph.D. student and postdoctoral fellow research advisor, and from safety committee member to representative for Women in Medicine & Science, Leslie continues to exemplify WFU’s commitment to excellence in all that she does. As such, Dr. Poole is a most deserving recipient of the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award, and we wish to thank and congratulate her for this accomplishment.