2025 ACS Macro Letters / Biomacromolecules / Macromolecules Young Investigator Award Winners

The ACS journals ACS Macro Letters, Biomacromolecules, and Macromolecules, in partnership with the Division of Polymer Chemistry, are proud to announce the winners of the 2025 ACS Macro Letters/Biomacromolecules/Macromolecules Young Investigator Award:

• Prof. Guillaume De Bo, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
• Prof. Julia Ann Kalow, Northwestern University, United States

This award recognizes two outstanding early career investigators conducting research in any area of fundamental polymer or biopolymer science. Professors De Bo and Kalow will be honored during an award symposium at ACS Fall 2025 in Washington, D.C. from August 17-21.

Prof. Guillaume De Bo

Prof. De Bo was born in Brussels, Belgium. He graduated from the University of Louvain, Belgium (M.Sc. 2004, and Ph.D. 2009 with Prof. István Markó), where he also held his first postdoctoral appointment in the group of Profs J.F. Gohy and C.A. Fustin. He then moved to the UK to join the group of Prof. David A. Leigh (2011-2015), first in Edinburgh then in Manchester. He started his independent career at the University of Manchester under the impulse of a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (2016-2023). He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2021 and Professor in 2022. His work aims at controlling the reactivity of molecules under tension for application in synthetic chemistry, materials, and biology.

Prof. Julia Ann Kalow

Prof. Kalow grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, and obtained her B.A. at Columbia University in 2008, where she studied chemistry and creative writing. She pursued graduate studies at Princeton University under the supervision of Prof. Abigail Doyle. After completing her Ph.D. in 2013, she was a postdoctoral fellow at MIT with Prof. Timothy Swager. She started her independent career at Northwestern’s Department of Chemistry in July 2016 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2023.