The Irsay-Dahle Award is awarded each year to an outstanding senior graduate student in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Kansas. The student’s qualifications include quantity and quality of research accomplished, original research proposal, quality of seminars, GPA and citizenship in departmental affairs.

Jacob Sorrentino is a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Kansas. In 2016, Jacob earned his B.S. in biology at Nevada State College, where he secured an INBRE grant to fund his work in Dr. Zachary Woydziak’s group. This research focused on the development of synthetic routes to access fluorinated fluorophores for use as biological tool compounds. Transitioning into graduate school, Jacob chose to pursue medicinal chemistry at the University of Kansas, where he joined the lab of Dr. Ryan Altman. His work focuses primarily on the development of synthetic methodology and the application of organofluorine chemistry toward the design of therapeutics and biological probes. During his time at KU, Jacob was awarded the Dr. Gregory and Frances L. Lauver Medicinal Chemistry Fellowship for his efforts and additionally served as the 2019 chair for the organizing committee for the annual MIKIW Meeting-in-Miniature. Moving forward, Jacob has accepted a post-doc position with Dr. Neil Garg, where he will further develop his skills through working on total synthesis related projects. Ultimately, he plans to move into the pharmaceutical industry to work in research and development.