Nancy Sarah Goroff (born February 18, 1968) is an American organic chemist who is chair of the chemistry department at

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...

. Her research investigates conjugated organic molecules, including polymers, halocarbons and buckyballs. During the

2020 United States elections The 2020 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. Democratic presidential nominee, former vice president Joe Biden, defeated incumbent Republican president Donald Trump in the presidential election. Despite losing seats ...

Goroff ran to represent

New York's 1st congressional district The 1st congressional district of New York is a congressional district for the United States House of Representatives in eastern Long Island. It includes the eastern two-thirds of Suffolk County, including most of Smithtown, as well as the ent ...

, and was defeated by the incumbent,

Lee Zeldin Lee Michael Zeldin (born January 30, 1980) is an American attorney, politician, and officer in the United States Army Reserve. A Republican, he has represented New York's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives ...

Early life and education

Goroff studied chemistry at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. She moved to the

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

for her graduate studies, where she joined

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, and worked under the supervision of and

François Diederich François Diederich (9 July 1952, in Ettelbruck – 23 September 2020) was a Luxembourgian chemist specializing in organic chemistry. Education He obtained both his diploma and PhD (first synthesis of Kekulene) from the University of Heidelbe ...

Scientific career

Goroff was an

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

(NSF) postdoctoral fellow at the

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

, where she worked in the laboratory of James (Ned) Jackson. At MSU she worked on the synthesis and study of

carbene In organic chemistry, a carbene is a molecule containing a neutral carbon atom with a valence of two and two unshared valence electrons. The general formula is or where the R represents substituents or hydrogen atoms. The term "carbene" ma ...

s, as well as on chemical education with

Brian Coppola Brian P. Coppola (born February 5, 1957 in Lawrence, Massachusetts) is a chemistry professor at the University of Michigan. Raised in Methuen, Massachusetts, and Derry, New Hampshire, Coppola is the eldest of four children of Frank and Shirley ...

. In 1997 Goroff joined the faculty of

. The Goroff laboratory design conjugated organic molecules, including polymers, halocarbons and buckybelts. Amongst these, Goroff is interested in

organoiodine compound Organoiodine compounds are organic compounds that contain one or more carbon–iodine bonds. They occur widely in organic chemistry, but are relatively rare in nature. The thyroxine hormones are organoiodine compounds that are required for he ...

s (including iodoalkynes) and halogenated cumulenes. She has investigated the chemical, material and photophysical properties of poly(diiododiacetylene), a polymer known as PIDA. Goroff has shown that suspending solutions of PIDA in pyrrolidine results in the formation of a highly conductive material. Conjugated molecular belts, where the deconjugated π-system is shaped into a cylinder. The belts are not dissimilar to

buckminsterfullerene Buckminsterfullerene is a type of fullerene with the formula C60. It has a cage-like fused-ring structure (truncated icosahedron) made of twenty hexagons and twelve pentagons, and resembles a soccer ball. Each of its 60 carbon atoms is bonded ...

, a spherical carbon allotrope, but has open edges that can be functionalised further. These belts have potential for nanoscale switches. In 2013 Goroff was appointed the Associate Provost for the Integration of Research at Stony Brook University. Goroff is a member of the

Union of Concerned Scientists The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is a nonprofit science advocacy organization based in the United States. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional scientists. Anne Kapuscinski, Professor of Environmenta ...

Political career

Throughout the 2018 election cycle she became concerned about the anti-illegal-immigrant rhetoric of three-term Republican incumbent Lee Zeldin. In 2020 Goroff ran for the 2020 United States House of Representatives, going on leave from her faculty position at Stony Brook University. On June 23 she won the

Democratic primary This is a list of Democratic Party presidential primaries. 1912 This was the first time that candidates were chosen through primaries. New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson ran to become the nominee, and faced the opposition of Speaker of the Unit ...

, with 36.1 percent of the vote, finishing ahead of 2018 nominee Perry Gershon. In November, she faced incumbent Lee Zeldin in the general election, losing by 9.8%. If elected, Goroff would have been the first congresswoman to have earned a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

Electoral history

Awards and honors

* 2000

National Science Foundation CAREER Award The National Science Foundation CAREER awards, presented by the National Science Foundation (NSF), are in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through research and education, and the integration of these endeavors i ...

* 2003 Thieme Award * 2011

Award for Excellence in Service * 2013

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all d ...

Award for Creative Research and Applications of Iodine Chemistry

Selected publications

* * *

References

External links

Faculty websiteCampaign website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goroff, Nancy Living people American women chemists Organic chemists Stony Brook University faculty Harvard College alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni New York (state) Democrats 20th-century American chemists 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American chemists 21st-century American women scientists Scientists from Chicago Candidates in the 2020 United States elections Jewish women scientists Jewish scientists 1968 births American women academics