Chemistry Professor Honored with National Teacher-Scholar Award

OMAHA, Neb. (Oct. 30, 2020) – Kayode Oshin, PhD, associate professor of chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been selected as a 2020 Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, an award honoring young faculty in the chemical sciences. 

Oshin is among eight college and university faculty members honored by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation for creating “an outstanding independent body of scholarship” and for being “deeply committed to education with undergraduates.” Each awardee receives an unrestricted research grant of $75,000. 

His research cited in the award, “Developing New Catalyst Systems for Atom Transfer Radical Addition Reactions,” seeks to develop new compounds (intermediates) used by pharmaceutical and chemical industries. “These intermediates can serve as essential building blocks in the production of drug molecules, therapeutics and household chemicals,” Oshin said.  

Oshin said he was delighted with the news of the award because it will “bring some national attention to all the amazing work performed by my colleagues within the Chemistry Department and Creighton University as a whole.”

He plans to use the grant to provide summer research stipends to Creighton undergraduates and support student travel to regional and national conferences to present research results.

Oshin, who is in his fifth year as a faculty-researcher at Creighton, is also the director of the Haddix STEM Corridor Program. 

Since its inception in 1970, the Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar program has awarded more than $52 milion to support emerging young leaders in the chemical sciences. The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation is a nonprofit organization with a mission “to advance the science of chemistry, chemical engineering, and related sciences as a means of improving human relations and circumstances around the world.”   

Learn more about the program and the Dreyfus Foundation here.