SLAS Scientific Director Mike Tarselli, Ph.D., Named to IUPAC's "Periodic Table of Younger Chemists"

SLAS News — May 30, 2019 — The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry named SLAS Scientific Director Mike Tarselli, Ph.D., to its 2019 “Periodic Table of Younger Chemists.” The recognition is part of the IUPAC’s 100^th anniversary celebration and honors a diverse group of 118 outstanding younger chemists from around the world who embody the mission and core values of IUPAC including fostering worldwide communications in the chemical sciences and in uniting academic, industrial and public sector chemistry in a common language.

Starting in July 2018, IUPAC has revealed ten elements each month; Tarselli’s recognition was announced in Ghent, Belgium, on Sunday, May 19. Tarselli is represented by the element Americium, a synthetic radioactive chemical element with the symbol Am and atomic number 95.

“I’m honored and humbled to be selected by IUPAC and the International Younger Chemists’ Network. It’s wonderful to be included among many worthy scientific scholars and leaders from across the globe. I hope to use this recognition to further our educational goals and to prepare the next generation for careers at the interface of chemistry, biology, automation, and data,” Tarselli said. Other awardees include a diverse mix of full professors, industrial lab leaders and prestigious academic fellows from around the globe. See full list of awardees to date.

Prior to joining SLAS in September 2018, Tarselli served as Associate Director of Information Systems at Novartis; conducted bench science and business development at a start-up, Biomedisy; spent a year in contract research, and made medicinally-relevant molecules at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Ariad, both in Boston. He has blended his work experiences with volunteer roles on non-profit boards, student mentoring and community outreach.

Mike has been recognized as a 2018 Wikipedia Fellow, a winner of the 2017 Novartis “What’s Possible?” contest, a University of Massachusetts (UMass) VIP Mentor, an American Chemical Society Leadership Development awardee, a Scripps Research Alumni Spotlight and a National Science Foundation Chemistry Communications Leadership Fellow. He has mentored more than 70 students, postdocs and young professionals, and delivered more than 30 posters seminars and career panels. Mike is an author on 24 peer-reviewed publications, on topics such as total synthesis, gold catalysis, titanium coupling, data science, recommender systems and science policy.

Mike received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, a Ph.D. in organometallic chemistry from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and completed postdoctoral studies at Scripps Research, studying antinociceptive natural products.

He currently serves on the UMass-Amherst Alumni Association Board of Directors, judges projects for the annual Massachusetts State Science and Engineering Fair, mentors as a UMass Alumni Advisor and Job Shadow Host and leads as a Volunteer Captain at the annual Cambridge (Mass.) Science Festival.

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SLAS (Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening) is an international community of 19,000 professionals and students dedicated to life sciences discovery and technology. The SLAS mission is to bring together researchers in academia, industry and government to advance life sciences discovery and technology via education, knowledge exchange and global community building.

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