Young-Shin Jun, professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, will serve as the inaugural speaker for the College of Engineering's new "HERoes of Tomorrow" Seminar Series: Building STEM Career Awareness.

Her presentation, titled "Environmental Nanochemistry for Sustainable Carbon, Water and Resource Management," is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14, in Bell Engineering Center room 1157.

The "HERoes of Tomorrow" Seminar Series, sponsored by the College of Engineering Biggadike Innovation Grant (BIG), is designed to inspire students by showcasing the successful diverse career paths in STEM. Led by assistant professor Lei Guo of the Department of Civil Engineering, this series is supported by a committee of faculty members from across the college, including Becca Muenich in biological and agricultural engineering, Younghye Song in biomedical engineering, Keisha B. Walters and Heather L. Walker in chemical engineering, Sarah Hernandez in civil engineering, Susan E. Gauch in electrical engineering and computer science, Sandra D. Eksioglu in industrial engineering, Neelakshi Majumdar in mechanical engineering, and graduate student Anne Lobitz from the Guo Lab, who also contributes to organizational tasks.

Running through mid-April, this series emphasizes personal development and career navigation, unlike traditional research seminars. It offers opportunities for informal interaction between students and leaders in industry and academia.

As our society faces rapid technological change and increasingly complex global challenges, the contributions of leaders in STEM have never been more essential. The HERoes of Tomorrow Seminar Series seeks to empower the next generation of leaders in these fields and highlight the critical role that diversity plays in driving innovative solutions for the future.

Following Jun's keynote address, the series will feature eight speakers:

• Feb. 20: Tracy Black of NewRoad Capital Partners will discuss computer science.
• Feb. 25: Karen Jewell with J.B. Hunt will present on industrial engineering.
• March 20: Mackenzie Lewis of AstraZeneca will explore biomedical engineering.
• March 31: Erin G. Webb from Oak Ridge National Laboratory will cover bioagricultural engineering.
• April 3: Fatemah Raniefar with Fehr and Peers will address transportation engineering.
• April 10: Christine Wolf of Wolf Fine Art Photography will talk about mechanical engineering.
• April 15: Keisha B. Walters, department head for chemical engineering, will discuss chemical and materials engineering.

Jun brings a distinguished background to the series. She leads the Environmental NanoChemistry Laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis and holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Ewha Woman's University in South Korea as well as master's and Ph.D. degrees in environmental chemistry from Harvard University.

Her postdoctoral research was conducted at the University of California-Berkeley/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Over her career, Jun has received numerous accolades including the 2008 Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, the 2011 NSF CAREER Award, the 2020 James M. Lee Memorial Award and the 2022 Jackson Award. She has also been honored as a Kavli Fellow (2015) by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a Frontier of Engineering Fellow (2016) by the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and as a fellow by both the Royal Society of Chemistry (2018) and the American Chemical Society (2019). Additionally, she serves as chair of American Chemical Society's Committee on Science and holds editorial and advisory roles with several leading scientific publications.