Chemistry professor recognized with Rising Star Award

University of Richmond professor Michelle Hamm has won the 2013 Rising Star Award from the Women Chemists Committee of the American Chemical Society.

This national award is given to only 10 exceptional women per year and recognizes outstanding mid-career women chemists from all professions within the field including academic, industrial and non-profit organizations. The award is also intended to help promote retention of women in science.

Hamm is chair of the Department of Chemistry, specializing in organic and biochemistry, and arrived at the University in 2001. Her current research focuses on 8-oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine (OdG), an abundant DNA lesion that can cause genome mutation and is thought to play a major role in several diseases, including cancer.

Hamm said that “winning one of the awards was a wonderful surprise. It is such an honor to be included on a list with such accomplished women.”

She will receive her award at the American Chemical Society’s meeting in New Orleans in April 2013, and will present an address at that event.