| Honored by: | Cynthia Jenks |
| Brick location: | K:27 map |
Dr. Andreja Bakac started at the Ames Laboratory in 1976 as a postdoctoral fellow. She worked at the Ames Laboratory as a staff scientist and for the ISU Department of Chemistry as an Adjunct Professor until her retirement in 2014. Dr. Bakac is the author of over 270 research papers focused on the activation of molecular oxygen, nitrogen and other small molecules with transition metals. In 2012, she and her colleagues solved a decades old mystery about the Fenton reaction, first discovered in 1894. This reaction is commonly used to treat wastewater. Two different reaction pathways had been debated with data to support both. Dr. Bakac’s work showed that the pathway depends on the pH of the reaction, something that had not been considered in the past and explains the contradictory data observed by others.
Dr. Bakac is a 2008 winner of an National Science Foundation Special Creativity Award.
The brick honors Dr. Bakac passion for science and for the people with whom she works.
Submitted 12/8/2014