All things Saint Louis Award for 2024: Winner, Symposium, Banquet
Tabbatha Bohac, past chair of the St Louis Section–ACS and chair of the award jury, has announced the winner of the 2024 St Louis Section ACS Award: Timothy Wencewicz, Professor of Chemistry at Washington University.
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Dr Timothy Wencewicz obtained a BS in Chemistry and Applied Mathematics from Southeast Missouri State University in 2006 and earned his PhD from the University of Notre Dame in 2011 working for Professor Marvin J Miller on siderophore-antibiotic conjugates for targeted drug delivery. He then went to Harvard Medical School to pursue postdoctoral training with Professor Christopher T Walsh on elucidating enzymatic mechanisms for natural product biosynthesis and antibiotic resistance.
Dr Wencewicz started his independent career as an Assistant Professor at Washington University in 2013 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2019. He has focused on addressing the antibiotic resistance crisis by studying the biosynthesis of natural products and elucidating new antibiotic strategies. He discovered the first β-lactone synthase using a genome-mining and enzyme-reconstitution approach, leading to the chemoenzymatic production of new analogs as potential drugs. He also discovered that certain β-lactam antibiotics function as mechanism-based transition-state inhibitors that can be adapted as warheads for the design of new drugs. In an elegant set of experiments, he mapped the enzymatic pathway to one of the most important drugs for treating iron overload diseases, commonly known as Desferal. This led him to elucidate a new paradigm for how bacteria can acquire iron from human blood, which he used to develop inhibitors that starve them of essential iron. Among other important advances, he discovered how certain bacteria destroy tetracycline, and developed inhibitors that block this process and restore its effectiveness against resistant strains.
Wencewicz has published more than 50 scholarly works and presented over 55 invited seminars. He has organized numerous conference symposia and was recently elected co-chair of the 2026 Enzyme Mechanisms Conference. He is co-author of a leading textbook on antibiotics published by Wiley and volume editor for Methods in Enzymology. He has won numerous awards (including this one) and secured research funding from the NIH, NSF, and private foundations. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Southeast Missouri University Foundation and on the editorial boards for the Journal of Biological Chemistry and the Journal of Antibiotics. He is a reviewer for many interdisciplinary chemical biology journals as well as funding agencies.
Timothy Wencewicz has demonstrated his deep commitment to graduate education through his activities with graduate admissions, recruiting, and mentoring in the College of Arts & Sciences and the School of Medicine. He was appointed Washington University Director of Graduate Studies in 2022, and serves as a standing member of the Interview Committee for the MD-PhD Medical Scientists Training Program and the Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology PhD programs and is Chair of the Admissions Committee in Chemistry. He has organized workshops on grant writing, fellowship applications, and graduate mentoring. His community outreach includes organizing on-site career panels at Bayer and Sigma, providing continuing education for high school science teachers, and promoting science to K-12 through interactive science demonstrations and career fairs. Dr Wencewicz has mentored 3 postdocs, 20 PhD students and 26 undergraduates.
The Saint Louis Section ACS Award, originally sponsored by the Monsanto Company (now Bayer) and administered by the Saint Louis Section–ACS, is presented to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the profession of chemistry and demonstrated potential to further the advancement of the chemical profession. The award, consisting of a $1,500 honorarium and a plaque, will be presented at the Saint Louis Award Banquet, immediately following the Award Symposium on Friday, November 1, 2024. Details For both the symposium and the banquet are below.
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Honoring Timothy WencewiczProfessor of Chemistry Department of Chemistry Washington University in St Louis
Making and Breaking Antibiotics: Nature’s WayFriday, November 1, 2024 Wrighton Hall 300 Washington University in St Louis
| 1:00 | Dr James Bashkin, Chair of the St Louis Section, American Chemical Society Welcome and general introduction |
| 1:05 | Dr Jennifer Heemstra, Charles Allen Thomas Professor and Chair, Department of Chemistry, Washington University, Symposium Chair Introduction and Salute to Dr Wencewicz |
| 1:10 | Dr Timothy Wencewicz, Professor of Chemistry, Washington University in St Louis, Awardee Antibotics and Enchanted Rings |
| 2:00 | Dr Gautam Dantas, Conan Professor of Laboratory and Genomic Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine Understanding, Predicting, and Combating Antibiotic Resistance Evolution Across Diverse Habitats |
| 2:50 | Coffee Break |
| 3:05 | Dr Andrew Gulick, Professor of Structural Biology, University at Buffalo, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Structural Studies of Enzymes that Catalyze Unusual Reactions in the Biosynthesis of Peptide Natural Products |
| 3:55 | Dr Paul Hergenrother, University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign How can we develop new antibiotics for drug-resistant infections? |
| 4:45 | Reception In the Rettner Gallery immediately following the symposium |
| 6:00 | St. Louis Award Banquet, Glen Echo Country Club, 3401 Lucas and Hunt Rd, Normandy, MO. Reservations required (see below for details and a link to make a reservation) |
Directions to parking and Wrighton Hall at Washington University.
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[acc_item title="The Banquet" id="St Louis Award Banquet"]
Friday, November 1, 2024, immediately following the Award Symposium (nominally 6:00 pm)
Glen Echo Country Club*
3401 Lucas and Hunt Road
Saint Louis, MO 63121
Honoring Timothy Wencewicz
| 6:00 pm | Reception —hors d’oeuvres (candied bacon, caprese, chicken skewers) —open bar (beer, wine, soda) until 8:00 pm |
| 7:00 pm | Dinner —First Course: mixed green salad with tomato, cucumber, mozzarella, sunflower seeds, and ranch or Italian dressing —Entrée: Japanese cut striploin and Asian glazed salmon, seasoned sesame rice, and stir-fry vegetables —Dessert: tiramisu |
| 8:00 pm | Program
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Reservations
Reservations are required by midnight, Monday, October 28th.
Please provide the following information for your party:
- Name(s) of attendee(s)
- Dietary limitations, if any
- Number attending
- Remittance amount: $40 each regular ACS member and spouse, $20 each graduate and undergraduate ACS member, $60 each non-member
The banquet reservation deadline is Monday, October 28th. Please either ...
Send reservations and the requested information with a check payable to “St Louis Section–ACS” by postal mail to:
Jeffrey Cornelius Department of Chemistry 1 Maybeck Place Principia College Elsah, IL 62028 phone: 618.374.5296 email: jeff.cornelius@principia.edu
or ...
Pay via PayPal (enter the requested info in the Notes window).
For either method of payment, it would be best to send a confirming email with the information to Dr Cornelius.
For information on obtaining ACS Membership see www.acs.org/membership.html
*Glen Echo Country Club is in Normandy, in the southwest sector of the intersection of Natural Bridge Road and Lucas & Hunt Road. A link to a map with directions is available here. Use either entrance:
- Main entrance drive: turn west off Lucas & Hunt Road; Edison Avenue will be on the opposite side of the road almost adjacent to the entrance drive. Continue on the winding drive, and the parking lot will be on your right adjacent to the clubhouse.
- Back entrance: turn south off Natural Bridge Road onto St Mary’s Lane, just east of the post office. Continue through the gate, veer right, and park in front of the clubhouse.
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