Joan Valentine, the first female faculty member in UCLA’s Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, was recently featured in a video by her alma mater, Princeton University.
Valentine was the first female Ph.D. recipient from Princeton’s Department of Chemistry. She was interviewed by Princeton’s science reporter Dr. Tien Nguyen when she returned to Princeton on May 17, 2017, as their Department of Chemistry student-invited lecturer. Her interview can be viewed either as a video excerpt, which focuses on her visit to Princeton, “Professor Valentine *71 Revisits Princeton” (03:45), or as the full interview (32:41), which covers her research interests, her career trajectory, and her reflections upon returning to visit Princeton. To learn more, visit the Princeton Chemistry Department news website.
Professor Joan S. Valentine interviewed by Dr.Tien Nguyen. Click to watch the video.
“Joan Valentine is a wonderful scientist, colleague, and mentor,” said UCLA Chemistry & BIochemistry Department Chair Professor Catherine F. Clarke. “She is our department’s first female faculty member, and she started our women chemists lunch meetings, which we recently renewed this year. She has always been a huge supporter of women in science, and I am so glad that on our wall with pictures of emeriti faculty in Young Hall, we
finally
have a photo of a woman!”
A biochemist and biological inorganic chemist, Valentine graduated from Smith College in 1967 with an A.B. in Chemistry. Four years later, in 1971, she was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Princeton University. After a year as an Instructor at Princeton, she was appointed Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Rutgers University in 1972. In 1980, she became the first female faculty member of the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. Valentine served as the Editor-in-Chief of Accounts of Chemical Research from 1994 to 2013. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2005. Valentine is currently a Distinguished Research Professor and Professor Emeritus of the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry.
To learn more about Valentine’s research visit her website.
