
Michele Sarazen.
Michele Sarazen, an expert in catalysis and green chemistry, has won the 2025 Augustine Award from the Organic Reactions Catalysis Society (ORCS).
The award recognizes early career engineers and scientists who have made significant contributions to the field. It is named for Robert Augustine, a contributing member of ORCS since 1966. In the award citation, the subcommittee recognized Sarazen’s diverse contributions to the field and noted her remarkable work on metal-organic frameworks.
Sarazen, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering, investigates catalysis and green chemistry to address global grand challenges in energy and sustainable manufacturing. Sarazen and her research group combine kinetic, synthetic and theoretical techniques to understand reaction mechanisms at the molecular level to make cleaner and more renewable fuels and products, as well as addressing deleterious byproducts in wasterwater streams.
Sarazen earned her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from University of California-Berkeley and joined the Princeton faculty in 2019. She is an associated faculty member in the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Department of Chemistry, High Meadows Environmental Institute and Princeton Materials Institute. She received an NSF CAREER Award in 2024 and was named to the 35 Under 35 list from the American Institute for Chemical Engineers in 2023.
In 2021, she received the Howard B. Wentz, Jr. SEAS Junior Faculty Award and the Princeton Engineering Commendation for Outstanding Teaching. She is the recent chair of the Catalysis Society of Metropolitan New York, Associate Editor of Applied Catalysis B: Environment and Energy, Journal of Catalysis Early Career Board member and on the AIChE Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Diversity and Inclusion Task Force. She was recognized with the Climate and Energy and Water and Energy Grand Challenge Awards from the High Meadows Environmental Institute.