{"id":32043,"date":"2024-05-10T12:10:16","date_gmt":"2024-05-10T16:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=32043"},"modified":"2025-04-02T17:40:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T21:40:49","slug":"stapleton-named-top-woman-chemistry-undergraduate-in-the-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/stapleton-named-top-woman-chemistry-undergraduate-in-the-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Stapleton named top woman chemistry undergraduate in the country"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a sea of honors<\/a> and awards<\/a> amassed by Saluda Abigail (Abby) Stapleton<\/a> \u201924, one of them holds particular significance. Stapleton received the 2024 Iota Sigma Pi Undergraduate Award for Excellence in Chemistry<\/a>. It\u2019s the first time a Furman University woman has received the distinction in the nearly 50 years since it was introduced by the professional society that recognizes outstanding women chemists.<\/p>\n

When she got word of the award, she snapped a screenshot of the email and sent it to her parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents are and always have been my biggest supporters and were just as thrilled as I was,\u201d said Stapleton who shared the news in-person with her professors.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbby has been a standout student in the classroom and in the research lab while also being highly involved in campus organizations,\u201d said Meghan Breen<\/a>, assistant professor of chemistry. \u201cShe\u2019s a great example of The Furman Advantage<\/a>, and I\u2019m so pleased that Iota Sigma Pi has recognized her hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stapleton later learned that she was the first Furman awardee. \u201cBeing selected out of a pool of the best female undergraduate chemists is an honor beyond what I ever could have imagined,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Perhaps even more remarkable is what she\u2019ll be doing next and how she got there.<\/p>\n

After considering six fully funded offers from med schools to get her M.D.-Ph.D., she\u2019ll move cross-country to attend the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson. She\u2019ll spend the next seven to nine years in the Medical Scientist Training Program<\/a>, an NIH-funded program that covers tuition and health insurance and includes a stipend throughout its duration.<\/p>\n

She also received offers from two traditional medical programs. \u201cIt made my decision for where to spend the next decade of my life difficult and nerve-wracking, but exciting at the same time,\u201d she said, adding that the school she chose only accepts about five students each year, and most of the M.D.-Ph.D. programs only accept five to eight candidates annually. Stapleton said, \u201cIt\u2019s an insane statistic, but it\u2019s one I\u2019m incredibly proud of.”<\/p>\n

The list of people at Furman she is indebted to is about as long as her list of med school suitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m certain I wouldn\u2019t be where I am today without the help of Dr. Meghan Breen, my research mentor over the last two and a half years,\u201d Stapleton said. \u201cBecause of Dr. Breen, I feel confident I\u2019ve found my calling to work as a physician scientist and make advancements both in direct patient care and medical knowledge.”<\/p>\n

Mary Elizabeth Anderson<\/a> and Karen Buchmueller<\/a>, professor and associate professor, respectively, of chemistry, encouraged and pushed her to pursue her passions, “no matter how scary that road seemed,” she said. Timothy Fehler<\/a>, the William E. Leverette Jr., Professor of History, engaged an entirely different set of critical analysis skills in history classes. “He has been one of my strongest advocates during my time at Furman.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Stapleton packs up her life in Greenville to move out West, she’s prepared to pay it forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so grateful for everything these professors and those I haven\u2019t mentioned have done for me,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m excited to serve as a resource and mentor for the next generation of young scientists.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stapleton earns prestigious award in chemistry from Iota Sigma Pi. She heads west to the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson where she’ll dive into the Medical Scientist Training Program funded by NIH.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":257,"featured_media":32045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,53,42,35,61,55],"tags":[2783,2784,2786,2788,746,2787,505],"class_list":["post-32043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-chemistry","category-history","category-parent-news","category-the-furman-advantage","category-undergraduate-research","tag-iota-sigma-pi","tag-m-d-ph-d","tag-mstp","tag-national-institutes-of-health","tag-nih","tag-university-of-arizona-college-of-medicine-tucson","tag-women-in-stem"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37019,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32043\/revisions\/37019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}