Stony Brook professor Nancy Goroff (PhD ’94), the Democratic nominee for Congress in New York’s First Congressional District, is profiled in C&EN.
Professor Nancy Goroff received a Ph.D. in chemistry at UCLA in 1994 under the direction of Professor François Diederich. If she wins in November, she will be the first woman with a natural sciences Ph.D. to be elected to Congress.
The article, titled “Chemist Nancy Goroff is moving from research to policy”, appeared in the “Women in Science” section of the September 7, 2020 issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN).
An accomplished physical organic chemist, Goroff is closing down her lab at Stony Brook to campaign full time.
“I will always be a scientist, no matter what—that’s part of who I am,” Goroff says in the article. “But I am winding down my research lab now, and I don’t plan to go back to the university. I have decided that these problems are so important that that’s what I want to work on. Running for Congress seemed like the most straightforward way of having the impact I want to have. But if that doesn’t work out, I will find another way to help the national conversation.”
“We wish Nancy success in her new endeavor,” said Professor Ken Houk. “We hope that she is a part of a new future for our country!”. At right, Houk is pictured with Goroff at an event in San Diego in 2019. Photo courtesy of Sir Fraser Stoddart.
In her research, Goroff worked to create new organic semiconductors to make solar energy more affordable. She also helped develop an entrepreneurship program called iCreate, which gives students tools to build, innovate and redefine technological boundaries.
Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penny@chem.ucla.edu.
