NYU Tandon Professor Named to Elite AAAS Fellowship

BROOKLYN, N.Y., Feb. 13, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) named Jin Kim Montclare, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, a 2019-20 AAAS Leshner Public Engagement Fellow. The AAAS will hold a reception on Thursday, February 14 at 4:30 p.m. during the 2019 AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., to welcome Montclare and nine other new AAAS Leshner Public Engagement Fellows.

Each year the AAAS Alan I. Leshner Leadership Institute for Public Engagement with Science addresses topics at the intersection of science and society, convening researchers who have demonstrated leadership and excellence in their careers and interest in promoting meaningful dialogue between the academy and the public. The 10 scientists and engineers selected this year work in the field of human augmentation, studying technologies that attempt to temporarily or permanently change the capabilities of the human body.

The Montclare Lab for Protein Engineering and Molecular Design has been responsible for several biomaterials, biocatalytic, and therapeutic research breakthroughs in recent years. Montclare and colleagues:

• With funding from the Department of Defense, developed detoxifying organophosphates, compounds commonly used in pesticides and warfare agents (such as sarin) that pose grave health hazards to people and animals.
• Designed protein-engineered environmentally responsive hydrogels that hold potential to become fundamental building blocks of new biomimetic materials that can heal wounds and more.
• With National Science Foundation funding, engineered protein-lipid macromolecule systems that can deliver genes, nanoparticles, and drugs for the potential treatment of multi-drug resistant cancer cells, diabetes, and other conditions requiring a variety of therapeutic approaches.

Montclare has been widely hailed for her efforts to introduce K-12 students to the STEM fields, and she has spearheaded an outreach program to help teach science, technology, engineering and math at a girls' school in Brooklyn. Additionally, she invites a group of high school students into her NYU Tandon lab to conduct research each summer under the auspices of the School of Engineering's Center for K-12 Education.

As the Director of the Convergence of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute, Montclare coordinates the coaching of student and/or faculty teams in STEM entrepreneurship across NYU. Through NSF I-Corps Sites Funding, she mentors over 65 teams with the explicit goal of increasing women and underrepresented minorities.  

Among numerous other honors, she has received the 2016 American Chemical Society Women Chemists Committee Rising Star Award; 2015 Agnes Fay Morgan Research Award from Iota Sigma Pi; 2014 Distinguished Award for Excellence, Dedication to Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship; 2014 Executive Leadership in Academic Technology and Engineering Fellowship; and membership in the National Honor Society for Women in Chemistry.

Montclare is a member of the American Chemical Society, the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering, the Biophysical Society, the Materials Research Society, the Biochemical Society, the Protein Society, the American Association of Cancer Research, and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

"The value of scholarship, particularly in the applied sciences, is its power to explain nature and use it to the benefit of society. We are thrilled that the scientific community recognizes, once again, that Jin Montclare excels both in her pioneering research and in her generous mentorship of the next generation of scientists and engineers," said Jelena Kovačević  the Dean of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. 

The incoming AAAS Leshner Public Engagement Fellows will convene this June at AAAS headquarters in Washington for a week of intensive public engagement and science communication training, networking, and public engagement plan development. The fellows will return to their institutions with resources and connections to develop, implement, and evaluate their public engagement activities, opportunities for training other scientists in their communities, and increased capacity for public engagement leadership.

About the New York University Tandon School of Engineering
The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to 1854, the founding date for both the New York University School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (widely known as Brooklyn Poly). A January 2014 merger created a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a tradition of invention and entrepreneurship and dedicated to furthering technology in service to society. In addition to its main location in Brooklyn, NYU Tandon collaborates with other schools within NYU, one of the country's foremost private research universities, and is closely connected to engineering programs at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai. It operates Future Labs focused on start-up businesses in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn and an award-winning online graduate program. For more information, visit http://engineering.nyu.edu.

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