POTSDAM -- A Clarkson University professor has been awarded the Distinction in Faculty Mentoring for Research and Scholarship Award.

Silvana Andreescu received the award that recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to faculty mentoring in research and scholarship by actively assisting pre-tenure and mid-career faculty in developing their careers.

Andreescu is the Egon Matijević Endowed Chair in chemistry and professor of bioanalytical chemistry at Clarkson. She is the associate dean of research for the School of Arts & Sciences, and the chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Science.

She received a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Perpignan, France, and the University of Bucharest, Romania in 2002, and has been a member of the Clarkson faculty since 2005.

She is a member of the Million Dollar Club at Clarkson University, reflecting funds received for sponsored research. She has been actively involved and initiated a number of mentoring activities for tenure track faculty, serving in the Arts and Science Mentoring committee, organizing monthly mentoring sessions and focused group discussions to help faculty develop their research and scholarly work, and serving in university-wide mentoring programs and proposal preparation panels.

Andreescu’s current research is in the areas of bioanalytical chemistry, electrochemistry, bionanotechnology, biosensing and environmental nanotechnology. Andreescu and her research team design devices that are inexpensive, easy-to-use and have the required detection sensitivity and selectivity for routine applications. Her work is regularly highlighted by the popular press around the world with recent examples featuring a newly developed custom bioink that can be 3D printed into a skin-safe UV sensor that changes color when you’ve been exposed to too much UV light, such as the sun.