Kim Renee Dunbar

Chemist and professor at Texas A&M University Kim Renee Dunbar has contributed landmark research in inorganic chemistry for decades to the international scientific community. To honor her achievements in the advancement of inorganic chemistry, Dunbar received the prestigious ACS Distinguished Service award. 

Since earning her Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Purdue University in 1984, Kim Renee Dunbar has been an international leader in the field as well as a role model to her peers and students. Over the years, she’s earned a number of awards and accolades for her work including being the first female holder of the Davidson Chair in Science. She’s taught at and conducted research from Texas A&M University for decades and has earned the institution’s highest academic faculty rank, the Distinguished Professor of Chemistry title. 

To date, Kim Renee Dunbar has won an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, a Camille & Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, and fellowships in both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Institute of Chemists. In addition, she’s a two-time recipient of the Texas A&M Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award (winning in 2006 and again in 2012) and earned the first Texas A&M Women Former Students’ Network Eminent Scholar Award. 

“She stands as an exemplary role model for young women who aspire to academic positions in chemistry,” says Jeffrey R. Long of the University of California, Berkeley, who is a longtime colleague.

The purpose of the ACS award is to recognize those who have advanced inorganic chemistry through significant service in addition to providing outstanding research to the scientific community. Recipients of the award are given $5,000 and a certificate declaring their achievement, as well as up to $1,000 for travel expenses to the meeting at which the award will be presented.

To be eligible for the ACS award, nominees like Kim Renee Dunbar must have demonstrated extensive contributions to the advancement of inorganic chemistry. Applicable contributions include teaching, writing, research, and the administration of chemistry. The nominee must also be an ACS member before becoming eligible for the award. 

The ACS award was established in 1963, and it was first supported through funds provided by anonymous donors for the first two years. After, Mallinckrodt, Inc. supported the award from 1965 to 1997, and Strem Chemicals, Inc. assumed sponsorship of the award in 1998.  

“I have been passionate about inorganic chemistry since I was an undergraduate, and I could not imagine another career,” says Kim Renee Dunbar. “I deeply admire the previous recipients of the award, all of whom set the bar very high for all of us in inorganic chemistry and inspired me greatly. I am highly honored to receive this award, and the many excellent students, postdocs, and coworkers who have contributed to the success of my research program share it with me.”