Alum's investment in science: Lindsey Baker receives fellowship to develop sustainable feedstock for fertilizers and commodity chemicals

Chemistry graduate student Lindsey Baker has been awarded the Heyl Yale Graduate Fellowship to support her graduate training and research in using electrocatalysis to convert nitrogen into ammonia.

The fellowship, awarded by Kalamazoo College, provides three years of tuition, health insurance, and stipend to eligible Kalamazoo alumni who attend Yale University.

Like the fellowship’s donor, Frederick W. Heyl ’1908 Ph.D.S., Baker is an alum of Kalamazoo and is pursuing a Ph.D. in chemistry at Yale.

The fellowship is an investment in students who have a natural inclination and curiosity in science.

It is fitting for Baker to receive it as she recalls what drove her interest in chemistry.

“One of my earliest exposures to science was through my parents, who are both chemistry professors,” she said. “They were always willing to answer the endless stream of questions I had about the world. That curiosity has matured but is just as strong now as it was when I was little. I’m super grateful for their willingness to help me cultivate that way of seeing the world.”

These days, as a first-year graduate student in Professor Patrick Holland’s lab, Baker’s line of questioning focuses on inorganic chemistry.

“My work is on the development of potential electrocatalytic systems for nitrogen reduction to ammonia, which would provide a more sustainable avenue to a critical feedstock (ammonia) for fertilizers and commodity chemicals,” she explained. “So far, I have been working with ruthenium-porphyrins, which had previously been explored for ammonia oxidation but have been underexplored in potential nitrogen reduction pathways.

Receiving this fellowship has meant that the Heyl Fellowship and Kalamazoo College choose to believe in my potential again and support me as a Kalamazoo alum pursuing chemistry, which has been incredibly heartwarming. It also means more flexibility and opportunities for myself and my lab, as external funding means that the funds that would have gone to supporting me can now be devoted to supporting another student on the project and supplies that can aid our research pursuits. Overall, I am excited to see how my research develops, and I am proud to represent both Yale and Kalamazoo as a Heyl Graduate Fellow!”

Also worth highlighting, another Kalamazoo alum and current Yale graduate student, Annie Tyler, was a recipient of a Heyl scholarship during her undergraduate studies and is currently a Heyl Yale Fellow.

Heyl History

“This is an investment. This plan is an invitation to hard work in the sciences.”

(F.W.H, 1959)

Frederick W. Heyl, was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1885 to parents of comfortable means. After graduating from Yale’s Sheffield Scientific School at the age of 19, he briefly operated a New Haven pharmacy before returning to Yale to earn his Ph.D. in chemistry. In 1913 he was hired to be the sole research chemist of the Upjohn Company, where he helped to grow Upjohn’s research efforts to a multi-million-dollar operation. When he retired in 1945 as vice president-research director, he had contributed scientifically to some eighty research papers and patents while also teaching chemistry at Kalamazoo College. In 1937, he was awarded a Doctor of Science degree by Kalamazoo College.

Aside from his devotion to research which resulted in bringing about many discoveries in the steroid field, Dr. Heyl was also deeply interested in the education of young scientists. From 1923 until his retirement, he was the guiding light of the Upjohn Scholars Program at Kalamazoo College, by whose encouragement many of Kalamazoo’s graduates went on to do advanced work at Yale University and elsewhere. 

Between 1945 and 1968, Dr. and Mrs. Heyl devoted much of their creative energies to helping youth. Aware of the nation’s growing needs in the scientific and medical workforce, the F. W. and Elsie L. Heyl Science Scholarship Fund was established through the will of Dr. and Mrs. Frederick W. Heyl to promote the education of young scholars in the fields of science and nursing. 

(Italicized originally published by Kalamazoo College)

Later the scholarship package expanded to include the Heyl Yale Graduate Fellowship for graduates of Kalamazoo College in a STEM field that successfully matriculate to STEM graduate studies at Yale University.

Support for our Graduate Students

What will your legacy be? Research from Yale Chemistry improves outcomes and transforms society. Our graduate students are the backbone of that research and need your support now more than ever. A capital gift to create a graduate student fellowship not only attracts the very best students but provides them with the resources to thrive as top contributors to science. 

To have a conversation about how making a capital gift might be possible, please reach out to Mark Donovan.

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