Nicola Pohl

Nicola Lucia B. Pohl is an American chemist who is the Joan & Marvin Carmack Chair at Indiana University Bloomington. She also serves as Associate Dean of Natural and Mathematical Sciences. Her research considers new approaches to make and analyse sugars. In 2020 she was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Early life and education Pohl earned her master's degree in at Radcliffe College. She graduated in 1991 having majored in English and American literature. Her graduate dissertation considered the works of Flannery O'Connor and Walker Percy. After completing her master's, Pohl started a doctoral research programme in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She has said that she was inspired by her Harvard chemistry professor, Dudley R. Herschbach. Her doctoral research involved the synthesis of carbohydrate-based ligands under the supervision of Laura L. Kiessling. She joined Stanford University as a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow in the research group of Chaitan Khosla.

Research and career In 2000 Pohl joined the faculty at Iowa State University. She spent twelve years in Iowa, eventually being made Wilkinson Professor of Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering. In 2008 she founded LuCELLa Biosciences, a spin-out company who specialise in the custom synthesis of carbohydrates.

Awards and honours

2004 National Science Foundation CAREER Award 2017 Elected Edward, Frances, and Shirley B. Daniels Fellow at Harvard University 2017 International Fluorous Technology Award 2017 Silicon Valley Chemist Harry and Carol Mosher Award 2018 American Chemical Society Melville L. Wolfram Award 2019 Fulbright Program Scholar

Selected publications