Emanuela Gionfriddo Receives 2023 EAS Young Investigator Award

Emanuela Gionfriddo, assistant professor of chemistry at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry of The University of Toledo in Ohio, has been named the winner of the 2023 EAS Young Investigator Award. The Award recognizes outstanding contributions by an early year scientist to the development of any aspect of analytical chemistry. To qualify for the award, candidates must be within 10 years of receiving their highest degree at the time of the award session, and must have made significant contributions to the field of analytical chemistry that have helped advance the state of the art. The award is to be presented at a special symposium, arranged in honor of the awardee, at the 2023 Eastern Analytical Symposium on Wednesday, November 15, at 9 am.

Research in Gionfriddo’s lab focuses on developing advanced analytical separation tools for the analysis of complex biological and environmental samples using green extraction methodologies. She received her PhD in analytical chemistry in 2013 at the University of Calabria in Italy. She joined Janusz Pawliszyn’s group at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada in 2014 as a post-doctoral fellow and manager of the gas-chromatography section of the Industrially Focused Analytical Research Laboratory (InFAReL), and within three years, became a research associate.

Gionfriddo has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed contributions, including a patent on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-based SPME coatings. Gionfriddo is one of the founding members of the Nina McClelland Laboratory for Water Chemistry and Environmental Analysis at The University of Toledo. She was also appointed to the Ohio Attorney General Yost’s Environmental Council of Advisors. Gionfriddo is the 2022 recipient of the ACS Analytical Division Satinder Ahuja Award for Young Investigators in Separation Science and the 2023 recipient of the LCGC Emerging Leader in Chromatography Award. She also serves as the Secretary of the ACS Analytical Chemistry Subdivision on Chromatography and Separation Chemistry and serves as an editorial advisory board member for LCGC.

Her research program is currently funded by the National Science Foundation through the 2022 CAREER Award, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and several industrial partnerships.