avelian (at) uw.edu | (206) 616-5179 | 304B/C Chemistry Building
Alexandra’s bio, interviews, cv & invited talks below.
Short Biography | |
Alexandra began her independent career at the University of Washington in 2017. A central goal in the group is to create next-generation catalysts geared to turn green-house gases like methane and carbon dioxide into value added products. Her approach is to use molecular strategies to synthesize single-site catalysts that harness metal-support interactions, and shine light on processes that govern the substrate/active sites/support interactions.
Alexandra’s scientific and academic contributions have been recognized with several awards and distinctions, including the Sloan Fellowship (2024), the Inorganic Chemistry Lectureship Award (2023), the Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award (2023), the Marion Milligan Mason AAAS Award (2023), the C&EN Talented 12 distinction (2022), a Cottrell Scholar Fellowship (2020), the NSF Career Award (2019), the Young Investigator Award – ACS Division of Inorganic Chemistry (2016) and the Alan Davison Prize for the Best Thesis in Inorganic Chemistry at MIT (2015). Most recently, Alexandra Velian was elected chair for the ACS Division of Inorganic Chemistry, Organometallic Subdivision (2024), and is also serving on the Editorial Advisory Board for JACS and Inorganic Chemistry (ACS; 2024), as well as Early Career Advisory Board of Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers (RSC; 2024). Alexandra completed her undergraduate studies in chemistry at Caltech, where she conducted research primarily with Professor Theodor Agapie. As the first member of his group, she developed the synthesis of low-valent mono- and bimetallic complexes supported by a terphenyl diphosphine framework. She received her Ph.D. under the direction of Professor Christopher C. Cummins at MIT, where she developed the synthesis of anthracene and niobium-supported precursors to reactive phosphorus fragments and studied their behavior using chemical, spectroscopic, and computational methods. Notably, this work gave rise to the synthesis of the 6π all-inorganic aromatic anion heterocycle P2N3−, produced in the “click” reaction of P2 with the azide ion. Following her PhD, Alexandra was a Materials Research Science & Engineering Center postdoctoral fellow with Professor Colin Nuckolls at Columbia University, where she worked on creating well-defined functional nanostructures by linking atomically precise metal chalcogenide clusters. Alexandra was born in Tulcea, Romania, and currently lives in Seattle with her husband, two kids and two cats. Outside chemistry, she loves the outdoors and ballroom dancing. |
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Interviews & Media | |
Read Alexandra’s C&EN Talented 12 profile here, and watch a short research presentation recorded as part of the C&EN Talented 12 Symposium. Read an interview with Prof, Velian for the Inorganic Chemistry Lectureship Award, here. Listen here to a fun discussion with graduate student Aidan Looby — creator and scope of the podcast “Under the Scope”, about creating undergraduate research opportunities, science in our research group at UW Chemistry & snippets from Alexandra’s time as an undergraduate student at Caltech, graduate student at MIT with Kit Cummins, and postdoc at Columbia University with Colin Nuckolls.
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Professional Appointments & Education | |
9/16/2024- | Associate Professor of Inorganic Chemistry (with tenure), University of Washington |
2017-2024 | Assistant Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Washington |
Research Focus: Atomically precise inorganic clusters and two-dimensional crystals for catalytic, electronic and quantum information applications | |
2015−2017 | MRSEC Postdoctoral Fellow, Columbia University |
Advisor: Prof. Colin Nuckolls; Research Focus: Designer materials from superatomic building blocks | |
2009−2015 | Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Advisor: Prof. Christopher C. Cummins; Thesis: “Taming Reactive Phosphorus Intermediates with Organic and Inorganic Carriers” | |
2005−2009 | B.S. with Honors in Chemistry, California Institute of Technology |
Advisor: Prof. Theodor Agapie; Thesis: “Mono- and Bi-metallic Complexes Supported by a Versatile Diphosphine Terphenyl Framework”; Advisor: Prof. Jonas C. Peters; Project: Tuning the luminescence in Cu2N2 diamond-core complexes | |
Selected Awards, Honors & Leadership | |
2024 | Sloan Research Fellowship, Sloan Foundation (one of twenty three chemists) |
Chair-Elect for the ACS Division of Inorganic Chemistry Organometallic Subdivision | |
Member of the Early Career Advisory Board for Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers (ACS) | |
Member of the Editorial Advisory Board for JACS (ACS) | |
Member of the Editorial Advisory Board for Inorganic Chemistry (ACS) | |
2023 | Pack Leader in Safety (UW) |
Inorganic Chemistry Lectureship Award (one of one) | |
Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, Dreyfus Foundation (one of eighteen) | |
Marion Milligan Mason Award for Women in the Chemical Sciences, AAAS (one of four; biennial) | |
Thrust Co-Lead, UW Molecular Engineering Materials Center (MEM-C), NSF | |
2022 | Theme Leader, Programmable Quantum Materials (Pro-QM) EFRC Center, DOE |
C&EN Talented 12 (one of twelve) | |
2021 | Cottrell Scholar Award, Research Corporation for Science Advancement (one of fifteen chemists) |
Reviewer Award Inorganic Chemistry, ACS (one of one hundred and ten) | |
2020 | JACS Young Investigators (one of twenty-seven) |
CAREER Award, NSF | |
2017–20 | Bernard and Claudine Nist Endowed Fellow |
2016 | Young Investigator Award (ACS Division of Inorganic Chemistry) |
2015 | Alan Davison Prize for the Best Thesis in Inorganic Chemistry (MIT) |
Chair, Organometallics Gordon Research Symposium | |
2013 | Morse Travel Grant (MIT) |
2006–09 | Hannah Bradley Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow (Caltech); Milton and Rosalind Chang Scholarship (Caltech); Edward W. Hughes Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (Caltech); Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (Caltech); Diane and Henry H. Hilton Scholarship (Caltech) |
2002–04 | Bronze medal, 38th Edition of D. Mendeleev International Chemistry Olympiad; Several prizes, Romanian National Chemistry Olympiad and C. D. Nenițescu National Competition |
Invited Lectures & Seminars | |
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Conferences & Symposia | |
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