Dr. Sharon L. Neal ’76 is an analytical chemist and Associate Professor Emerita in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Delaware. Her career is distinguished by her contributions linking spectroscopy (studies of light-matter interactions) to chemical data science, as well as her steadfast advocacy for diversity and mentorship within the scientific community.

 

Dr. Neal earned her B.S. in chemistry from Spelman College in 1980. Undergraduate research at Spelman, Cornell, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory fueled her ambitions, leading her to Emory University. There, she earned her Ph.D. in 1988 as an early adopter of advanced statistical analysis in chemistry. She completed her training as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington.

 

Following a two-year stint in industry at the Coca-Cola Company before graduate school and tenure-track positions at Spelman and the University of California, Riverside, Dr. Neal joined the University of Delaware in 1998. A central theme of Dr. Neal’s research is the development of multichannel spectroscopy enabled by multivariate statistical analysis. Her laboratory used computational "unmixing" to isolate signals of components in complex systems to elucidate chemical processes such as photodynamic therapy agent degradation and cadmium quantum dot weathering. She and her coworkers have published their work widely in peer-reviewed journals and contributed to compilations such as the Encyclopedia of Analytical Chemistry and Annual Review of Analytical Chemistry. Currently, Dr. Neal serves as an Associate Editor for Applied Spectroscopy: Practica.

 

Beyond the laboratory and classroom, Dr. Neal is a dedicated scientific citizen. As a rotating program officer at the National Science Foundation (NSF), she managed proposal reviews and  formally recommended projects for funding. Her leadership includes serving on the NSF Mathematics and Physical Sciences Advisory Committee (2008–2011), Committee on the Advancement of Women Chemists (2004 -), co-organizing the 2022 national workshop on the future of chemical data science and chairing the Northeast Region of National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (2017–2023).