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2 July 1999 Vol. III, No. 1 Feature Article Good vibes from atoms Chemistry prof wins award for teaching and research By Hope Green Amy Mullin, a CAS assistant professor of chemistry, has won a $60,000 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award for 1999. Sponsored by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, the Teacher-Scholar program supports the careers of talented young faculty members in the chemical sciences. Mullin has budgeted her five-year grant for the purchase of new equipment, summer stipends, undergraduate activities, and administrative costs, as well as to support her own scholarly work. Assistant Professor Amy Mullin (left) in the laboratory with Kathryn Werner (CAS'00), a member of her research team. Photo by Fred Sway "I am grateful for the money," Mullin says, "but what's more important is the honor of receiving the award, because it recognizes the challenge of making time for both teaching and research." In the last academic year alone, she presented her research findings in 26 seminars at outside universities. Mullin joined the chemistry department in 1994 with backing from the Henry Luce Foundation's Clare Boothe Luce Program, which supports faculty positions for women in the physical sciences. Her research focuses on understanding how energy flows at the molecular level, which has potential applications for creating more efficient engines. Of particular interest to Mullin and her research team is vibrational energy, which is held in the bonds between atoms. In the laboratory, the group uses lasers to prepare molecules in an excited state, then monitors the various kinds of molecular energy present. Team members speak highly of Mullin's approach to teaching. "She's very demanding, but that's a good thing," says Andrew Lemoff (CAS'99), who is completing a summer project with the group. "She expects you to work hard, and that's very motivating." Science communication skills are important to Mullin, who has taken the unusual step of sponsoring poster presentations for undergraduates -- usually a graduate-level activity. "Most of them dread it at first," she says. "But by the end they love it because it's an informal setting, they're speaking to their peers, and it gives them a taste of how science isn't just sitting there crunching numbers and doing huge calculations. They have to really talk to people about how they understand a physical process."