Are you an early career scientist making strides in agrochemicals or biotechnology-related research? Interested in presenting your work at the ACS Fall Meeting in Washington? The ACS Division of Agrochemicals invites you to apply for our New Investigator Awards! This program celebrates innovative research and outstanding contributions to the field, helping you advance your career and network with leaders in agrochemistry.
The award will be granted regardless of race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity, presence of disabilities, and educational background. ACS membership is not required.
Deadline to Apply
March 30, 2026
Submit Via On-Line Form Before the Deadline
- Copy of email from ACS confirming your abstract was successfully submitted (https://maps.acs.org/) to a symposium of your choice in the AGRO Division, ACS 2026 Fall Meeting program
- Extended abstract (maximum 2 pages) describing the applicants research/studies including the impact (or potential impact) of the results relevant to issues of concern to AGRO.
- 1-page curriculum vitae.
- At least one letter of recommendation from a current supervisory scientist (g., post-doctoral mentor, a business manager or owner, department chair).
Eligibility Criteria
- Early-career scientist within five years of obtaining their Ph.D. (no earlier than 2021).
- Scientists from all sectors are welcome, g., academia, industry, government, or non-governmental organizations.
Scope of Scientific Work
We welcome submissions in the following areas:
- Agrochemicals: synthetic and biopesticides, pheromones, plant-incorporated protectants, veterinary pharmaceuticals, fertilizers and biological nitrification inhibitors, plant growth regulators, disinfectants, adjuvants and nanomaterials.
- Biotechnology-derived crops of all types.
- Public health protection including crop, livestock, aquaculture, and wildlife protection.
- Products from commodities and byproducts including biofuels and bioproducts.
- Applications of environmental chemistry, engineering, toxicology, exposure assessment, risk characterization, risk management, and science policy in agrochemicals, biotechnology, and related fields.
Award Description
- From the applicant pool, three finalists will be selected.
- Applicants will be notified of their status in May 2026.
- Each finalist will receive up to $2000 for travel and meeting expenses for the Fall ACS Meeting in Chicago.
- Finalists will deliver an oral presentation in an AGRO Program symposium.
- Finalists will be highlighted in the Picogram.
- Presentations will be evaluated by an expert panel, with the winning presentation announced at the AGRO Social Hour.
Sponsored by
For questions, please contact New Investigator Award Chairs:
Sara Whiting, Bayer Crop Science
Nurhayat Tabanca, USDA-ARS
Ashli Brown, Mississippi State University
Paramita Deria, Bayer Crop Science
***Accepting Applications for 2026 beginning January 8, 2026***
2025 New Investigator Awardees
Winner
Na Xie is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at University of Florida. She earned her B.S. in Pharmaceutical Engineering from Northwest A&F University in China, followed by an M.S. in Pesticide Science, where she focused on the extraction and isolation of bioactive plant compounds with insecticidal properties. She received my Ph.D. in Entomology from Virginia Tech in May 2022, advised by Dr. Aaron Gross, and currently serve as a postdoctoral researcher in the Bonning Lab at the University of Florida.
In Bonning lab, she contributes to a USDA Emergency Citrus Disease Research and Extension project targeting citrus greening disease. Her research utilizes RNA interference (RNAi) to silence gut surface proteins of the Asian citrus psyllid. This work aims to unravel the interaction between gut proteins and Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas) infection, offering vital insights for developing innovative disease management strategies. Her second project involves identifying pathogen receptor binding motifs on the surface of the insect gut using a bait protein, aminopeptidase N (APN), with an overall goal to mitigate the resistance to Bt toxins among pest populations.
Finalists
Niranjana Krishnan is an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research focuses on assessing the effects of pesticide exposure on different levels of insect biological organization. She is also serving as Maryland’s Pesticide Safety Education Program Coordinator and teaches courses in molecular and cellular biology and pesticide toxicology and risk assessment.
Zhilin Li received his bachelor’s degree in plant protection from Northwest A&F University in 2014. In 2016, he joined the Insect Physiology Laboratory in the Department of Entomology at Louisiana State University to pursue his master’s degree under the mentorship of Dr. Daniel Swale. His thesis research focused on characterizing the role of potassium conductance pathways, particularly inward rectifier potassium channels, in arthropod salivary gland and feeding. After earning his M.S. in 2018, Zhilin continued in the same lab to pursue his Ph.D. His doctoral research expanded into defining pathogen–vector interactions using chemical probes, with the long-term goal of developing novel approaches to reduce vector competence by interrupting pathogen-induced changes within the vector. Zhilin is currently a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Florida, working under the supervision of Drs. Jeffrey Bloomquist and Daniel Swale, with a primary project of characterizing the mode of action of a natural product insecticide. He is interested in developing new active ingredients and targets for pest management.
Past Awardees
2025
- Na Xie, University of Florida (Winner)
- Niranjana Krishna, University of Maryland (Finalist)
- Zhilin Li, University of Florida (Finalist)
2024
- Felipe Andreazza, Duke University (Winner)
- Roxana Coreas, University of California, Berkeley (Finalist)
- Anais LeMauff, University of Florida (Finalist)
2023
- Sanghyeon Kim, University of Florida, Gainesville (Winner)
- Rui Chen, University of Florida, Gainesville (Finalist)
- Zhilin Li, University of Florida, Gainesville (Finalist)
2022
- Cera Fisher, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (Winner)
- Anais Le Mauff, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL (Finalist)
- Ellis Johnson, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (Finalist)
2021
- Gareth Thomas, Rothamsted Research, UK (Finalist)
- Marla Bianca, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD (Finalist)
- Zijiang Yang, University of Maryland, College Park, MD (Winner)
2020
- Alex Gaffke, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Gainesville, FL (Winner)
- Edmund Norris, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL (Finalist)
- Jose Luis Rodriquez Gil, University of Manitoba, Manitoba, Canada (Finalist)
2019
- Edmund Norris, University of Florida, Gainesville (Finalist)
- Scott O’Neal, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Winner)
- Leslie Rault , University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Finalist)
2018
- Liu Yang, University of Florida, Gainesville (Winner)
- Scott O’Neal, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Finalist)
- Leslie Rault , University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Finalist)
2017
- Maykel Hernández-Mesa,L’Université Nantes Angers Le Mans, France (Winner)
- Emily Woodward, US Geological Survey, Sacramento, CA (Finalist)
- Caitlin Rering, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Gainesville, FL (Finalist)
2016
- Aaron Gross, Iowa State University (Winner)
- Anson Main, University of Missouri-Columbia (Finalist)
- Ana María Vélez, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Finalist)
2015
- Bartek Troczka, Rothamsted Research (Winner)
- Weiying Jiang, California Environmental Protection Agency (Finalist)
- Fang Jia, Bayer CropScience (Finalist)
- John Sivey, Towson University (Finalist)
2014
- Lacey Jenson, Virginia Tech (Winner)
- Natasha Andrade, University of Maryland, College Park (Finalist)
- Helene Hopfer, University of Technology, Austria (Finalist)
2013
- Daniel Swale, University of Florida, Gainesville (Winner)
- Chloé de Perre, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale (Finalist)
- Chitvan Khajuria, University of Nebraska, Lincoln (Finalist)
2012
- Xin Zhang, Kansas State University (Winner)
- Jeremy Conkle, University of California, Riverside
- Fan Tong, Iowa State University
2011
- Cody Howard, University of California, Davis
2010
- Kyoung Sup Yoon, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
2009
- Jennifer Anderson, Iowa State University
2008
- Ashli Brown, Mississippi State University