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By David A. Laviska, Portfolio Manager for Green Chemistry and Sustainability in Education, ACS Green Chemistry Institute
Join us in congratulating the winner of the Teaching Green Fellowship, David Vosburg, Ph.D., and winners of the Rising Star in Green Chemistry Education Award, Iris Yu, Ph.D., and Qi Dong, Ph.D.
2025 Teaching Green Fellowship
The ACS Green Chemistry Institute is proud to announce that David Vosburg, Ph.D. (Harvey Mudd College) is the winner of the 2025 “Teaching Green Fellowship”. Sponsored by the ACS Campaign for a Sustainable Future, this fellowship is given to a pedagogical innovator who has reimagined one or more parts of the chemistry curriculum to better prepare students for future careers in which they can work toward addressing grand global challenges such as those addressed by the U.N. SDGs. “Reimagining” includes developing, piloting, deploying, and documenting significant curricular innovations involving the fundamental tenets of green chemistry and/or sustainability. Curricula can include material for teaching at the undergraduate level in traditional lecture classes, laboratory classes, and/or other non-traditional modes of instruction where student success has been demonstrated convincingly. In addition to the engraved award, the winner receives $10,000 for faculty summer salary, $5,000 for summer stipend(s) for student(s) working in conjunction with faculty on the development of greener curriculum materials, and travel support for the awardee and one student to attend the annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference (GC&E) to receive the award and speak at an invited awards symposium.
Dr. Vosburg is the Donald A. Strauss Professor of Chemistry at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, a proud signer of the Beyond Benign Green Chemistry Commitment. His research group pursues biomimetic organic synthesis, sustainable chemistry, and green chemistry education. He was educated at Williams College, Scripps Research Institute, and Harvard Medical School. David is a Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, a Newbigin Interfaith Fellow, an Inklings Project Fellow, and a recipient of the American Chemical Society’s Committee on Environmental Improvement (ACS-CEI) Award for Incorporating Sustainability into Chemistry Education. He and his family of five share J.R.R. Tolkien's love for forests and eucatastrophe and have enjoyed green-chemistry-related sabbaticals at the University of Cambridge (UK) and the University of Guanajuato (Mexico), the latter supported by a Fulbright-García Robles award.
2025 Rising Stars in Green Chemistry Education
We are also delighted to announce that two outstanding early-career faculty have been selected as winners of the 2025 “Rising Star in Green Chemistry Education Award”. The winners for 2025 are Iris Yu, Ph.D. (National University of Singapore) and Qi Dong, Ph.D. (Purdue University). Sponsored by the ACS Campaign for a Sustainable Future through the Green Chemistry Institute, this award is meant to recognize outstanding early-career scholars who have committed to a significant focus on green chemistry and/or sustainability in curricula for teaching chemistry, chemical engineering, or a closely related field. Early-career scholars who have committed to a significant focus on green chemistry and/or sustainability in their curricula for teaching are eligible. Curricula can include material for teaching traditional lecture classes, laboratory classes, and/or other non-traditional modes of instruction if student success has been demonstrated convincingly. Mentoring and apprenticeship in the research laboratory is also considered, if research outcomes are directly tied to the fundamental tenets of green chemistry and student development and training are valued and measurable. Two awards are given annually, and winners receive an engraved award, a $1,000 honorarium, and travel support for the awardee and one student (up to $2,000 each) to attend the annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference (GC&E) to receive the award and present their work at an invited awards symposium.
Qi (Tony) Dong is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Purdue University. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Boston College, where he focused on green energy technologies such as metal-air batteries and electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction. He then completed postdoctoral training at the University of Maryland and served as a visiting scholar at Princeton University, exploring green chemical manufacturing using electrothermal approaches. During this time, Dr. Dong co-founded Polymer-X Inc., a startup dedicated to electrified chemical synthesis and plastic upcycling. His research centers on developing novel chemical processes and materials to address pressing challenges in energy, environmental sustainability, and critical resource management. In addition, he is deeply passionate about sustainability and green chemistry education. Since joining Purdue, he has developed and offered a graduate-level course titled “Sustainability, Energy, and the Environment.” This interdisciplinary course addresses the evolving energy landscape and growing environmental challenges and includes topics such as decarbonization, carbon capture, utilization and sequestration, plastic recycling, microplastics, PFAS, and life-cycle assessment. In addition, Dr. Dong is developing an undergraduate-level course that discusses the intersection of chemistry and sustainability.