Neil C. Tomson Receives National Institutes of Health Grant

Neil C. Tomson, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, has been awarded the Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) for Early Stage Investigators grant. The grant is made by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, which, as a part of the National Institutes of Health, supports basic research that increases understanding of biological processes and lays the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.

MIRA grants provide early-career investigators with stability and flexibility, enhancing scientific productivity and the opportunity for important breakthroughs.

The five-year, $1.6 million grant supports Tomson’s research on electrostatic effects in model compounds of metalloenzyme active sites. The Tomson group performs synthetic inorganic and organometallic chemistry as a way of investigating new concepts in structure, bonding, catalysis, and materials chemistry. Tomson’s research is particularly interested in energy problems and works to take advantage of modern concepts in bonding theory to generate materials that can influence how energy from renewable sources is collected, stored, and released.