10/07/2026
This , we’re highlighting Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi, chemist, professor and 2022 recipient of The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her pioneering work in bioorthogonal chemistry. Today, a new group of scientists joins her as Nobel laureates in chemistry, and we're taking a moment to celebrate her journey.
When Dr. Bertozzi began college at Harvard, she had no plans to become a chemist. That changed when a required organic chemistry course sparked a lifelong passion and inspired her to switch majors. In the 1980s, chemistry was a male-dominated field with few women or openly LGBTQ+ scientists as visible role models. Despite the exclusion and hostility, Dr. Bertozzi went on to earn her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, where she began studying glycans, the sugars that coat our cells and play a key role in the immune system and disease.
Dr. Bertozzi set out to track glycans inside living organisms without disrupting their natural processes. Her breakthrough was a technique called bioorthogonal chemistry, which allows chemical reactions to take place safely inside living things. With it scientists could track carbohydrates through organisms for the first time. Today, scientists around the world use her methods to study cells, and her work is helping develop new treatments for cancer and other diseases.
Dr. Bertozzi's work reminds us that the challenges we face can shape the leaders we become. After experiencing exclusion herself, she built labs where people of all backgrounds feel welcome, and she credits that diversity as the key to her lab's success. Her story shows that discovery and innovation thrive when everyone has a seat at the table.
