2023 Pittcon Achievement Award to Be Given to Jeffrey Dick for His Nanotechnology Research

The Pittcon Achievement Award, presented annually, recognizes individuals for outstanding achievements in the fields of analytical chemistry or applied spectroscopy within 10 years after completion of their PhD work. For 2023, Pittcon and the Society of Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh chose Jeffrey Dick of Purdue University to be the award's recipient.

Dick graduated from Ball State University with a BS in Chemistry and earned his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 2017. While pursuing his doctorate, Dick become an NIH CORE Postdoctoral Scholar with Professor K.M. Miller. He joined the Chemistry Department at the University of North Carolina in 2018. In 2022, he moved to Purdue University, where he is now a professor in the Chemistry Department.

Dick’s research usually focuses on electrochemical characterization of single species such as enzymes, single cells, molecules, and catalytically active metal nanoparticles. To facilitate these efforts, he has created novel electrochemical deposition strategies that can lead to significant reshaping of how the scientific community views single particle synthesis. He and his group have shown nanoelectrode probes can be fabricated with dimensions similar to those of biological macromolecules (5–15 nm in diameter). Such small electrodes make it possible to study the behavior of single molecules and nanoparticles.

Dick has over 40 independent referred publications and received multiple awards, including an NSF Career Grant, a US Army Core of Engineers Award, and an Alfred P Sloan Fellowship.

The award symposium included talks by Dick himself, as well as R. Graham Cooks of Purdue, Jan Verlet of Durham University, Kevin Wilson of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, and Richard Zare of Stanford. Each speaker discussed different aspects of nanotechnology, highlighting Dick’s work in the process. The session took place on Tuesday, March 21, starting at 8:30 am, with Pittcon itself being held from March 18–22.