AAAS elects Dr. Stosh Kozimor and Dr. Sandra Davern as fellows
Left: Sandra Davern, Right: Stosh Kozimor
Two scientists supported by the Department of Energy Isotope Program have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Dr. Stosh Kozimor, who serves as principal investigator for the Office of Science Heavy Element Chemistry Program and works with the Isotope Production team at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Dr. Sandra Davern, who leads the Radioisotope Research and Development section in the Radioisotope Science and Technology Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, join the 2022 class of AAAS fellows.
AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals. Its fellows are a distinguished group of scientists, engineers and innovators who have been recognized for their achievements across disciplines ranging from research, teaching and technology, to administration in academia, industry and government, to excellence in communicating and interpreting science to the public.
Dr. Sandra Davern leads the Radioisotope Research and Development Section in the Radioisotope Science and Technology Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She is the initiative lead for Accelerating Radiotherapeutics through Advanced Molecular Constructs and the Accelerating Radiotherapeutic Innovations and Applications at ORNL, for which she organized three international workshops. Much of her research centers around advancing the use of radioisotopes for medical applications, including targeted alpha therapy for cancer treatment. She has been principal investigator for multiple studies in radioisotope applications and radiobiology. Her teams’ inventions include a deployable human bioindicator, a system using vertically aligned carbon nanofiber arrays for the microdelivery of biomolecules to plants, monoclonal antibodies with immunodiagnostic capabilities and nanoconstructs for radionuclide delivery to cancer cells.
Davern’s fellowship election recognizes her “for contributions to the field of targeted radionuclide therapies, particularly for the development of nanomaterials to deliver radionuclides to cancer cells and novel methods assessing DNA damage and radiobiological effects.”
She came to ORNL in 2015 as a radioisotope researcher in isotope and fuel cycle technology. She holds a doctoral degree in cell biology from University College Dublin and a bachelor of science degree in biotechnology from Dublin City University, both in Ireland.
Dr. Stosh Kozimor is honored for seminal contributions that have advanced fundamental science and solved applied problems in heavy-element chemistry, separations, isotope production and national security. As a technical staff member at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Kozimor has had the good fortune to work alongside more than 60 students and post-doctoral researchers. Together, this team has conducted research focused on advancing fundamental science and solving technical problems important to the DOE missions. Their efforts reside at the convergence of two distinct fields (namely Radiochemistry and Inorganic Chemistry).
Kozimor started his career after receiving a B.S. in chemistry and a minor in mathematics from Fort Lewis College and a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of California, Irvine. His thesis work focused on exploring the effects of steric crowding on the chemistry of f-element complexes under the direction of Prof. W. J. Evans. Next, Kozimor was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied actinide molecular magnetism with Prof. J. R. Long. Subsequently, he joined LANL as a distinguished Frederick Reines Fellow under mentorship from Drs. C. J. Burns and D. L. Clark. He was converted to technical staff, where he began leading fundamental chemistry studies on actinides and conducted operational environmental monitoring efforts for Chemistry Division’s Nuclear and Radiochemistry group. He later joined the Isotope Production Team, whose mission is to secure the nations supply of radioisotopes, and is P.I. for the Office of Science Heavy Element Chemistry program at LANL.
