Karen Goldberg, the Vagelos Professor of Energy Research in the School of Arts and Sciences, has been selected as the recipient of the 2023 William H. Nichols Medal of the American Chemistry Society. She is recognized for her pioneering work in organometallic reaction mechanisms.

Dr. Goldberg arrived at Penn in 2017 and is the inaugural Director of the Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology (VIEST). The Goldberg team primarily works with homogeneous catalysts and aims to improve the catalytic systems through thoroughly understanding the mechanisms by which the catalysts operate. Research in the Goldberg group is focused on the development of new catalytic systems to efficiently produce chemicals and fuels from a range of available feedstocks.

The William H. Nichols Medal recognizes outstanding contributions in the field of chemistry and is the first award authorized by the American Chemical Society.  Presented at a gala award dinner annually since 1903, the Nichols Medal encourages original research in chemistry.  Nichols Medal recipients are a singularly significant group of distinguished scientists that includes seventeen Nobel laureates and twenty-five National Medal of Science recipients.