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CUR’s 1st Silvia Ronco Innovative Mentor Awardee is Cottrell Scholar, Scialog Fellow

Cottrell Scholar 2018 and Scialog: Chemical Machinery of the Cell Fellow Lou Charkoudian, chemistry, Haverford College, has been selected as the first recipient of the Council on Undergraduate Research’s Silvia Ronco Innovative Mentor Award.

The award, established in February 2022 by a gift from Research Corporation for Science Advancement in honor of CUR’s past president and current RCSA Senior Program Director Silvia Ronco, recognizes a tenure-track faculty member within 10 years of their first faculty appointment who demonstrates success in chemical sciences and whose mentoring practices have supported undergraduate research.

“Silvia has long been a champion of expanding research opportunities for undergraduates and increasing diversity in the physical sciences,” said RCSA President & CEO Daniel Linzer. “I can’t think of a more fitting honor for Silvia than CUR’s selection of an awardee who is equally committed to these ideals.”

Charkoudian is an active member of the Cottrell Scholar community and co-founder of FLAMEnet, a nationwide network of STEM instructors, education researchers, and psychologists who study how interpersonal frameworks can be leveraged to support undergraduate STEM education. She is a member of a Cottrell Scholars Collaborative project to expand connections between Cottrell Scholars and FLAMENet in an effort to promote resilience and tenacity among college-level STEM students.

Charkoudian also participated as a Fellow in RCSA’s Scialog: Chemical Machinery of the Cell initiative, which concluded in 2021.

Read CUR’s announcement.

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