Felicia Etzkorn honored with emerita status
Felicia Etzkorn, professor of chemistry in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, has been conferred the title of professor emerita by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
The emerita title may be conferred on retired faculty members who are specially recommended to the board by Virginia Tech President Tim Sands in recognition of exemplary service to the university. Nominated individuals who are approved by the board receive a copy of the resolution and a certificate of appreciation.
A member of the Virginia Tech community for more than 23 years, Etzkorn made significant advances in understanding the molecular mechanisms of cell division and collagen protein folding and stability in work funded by the National Institutes for Health and the National Science Foundation. She published more than 116 papers, abstracts, and reviews and served as an advisor for Virginia Tech Post-baccalaureate Research and Education Program (VT-PREP).
Etzkorn has also served on numerous grant review committees for the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation and has reviewed proposals for other agencies as well as reviewed manuscripts for high-impact journals.
In 2007, Etzkorn designed and developed one of the first courses in the world dedicated to green chemistry and taught it for 14 years. She wrote the textbook “Green Chemistry: Principles and Case Studies,” published in 2020 by the Royal Society of Chemistry, that was used in this course and was adopted at several other universities.
Etzkorn has been active in the international green chemistry movement, participating in monthly online meetings of the Beyond Benign Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community. She has served as a consultant to the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute in developing three one-week-long green chemistry modules for organic chemistry that are freely available online.
Etzkorn was the major advisor for 12 Ph.D. and seven master’s degree students and she directed the research of seven postdoctoral associates. In addition, she advised 57 undergraduate students who learned biomedical research skills in her lab, and she helped all her students develop successful careers in academia, government, and industry.
She also taught undergraduate and graduate courses in organic and green chemistry and assiduously kept current with modern pedagogy, such as the flipped classroom with video lectures, case studies, and group project work.
Etzkorn received her bachelor's degree from Southwest Missouri State University and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
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