Biography: Jigisha Shah has been active in the Silicon Valley ACS section since 2016, serving as the Secretary and Chair. She has been heavily involved in outreach activity
The Local Section and the local chemistry community have benefited from both established and new programs in which Jigisha has held major leadership roles. She demonstrates care and energy in providing children, students, and teachers learning opportunities in the sciences.
Among these are:
- Teach-the-Teachers, a day-long workshop for middle school teachers with hands-on experimentation, colorful lectures, and take-home materials for their classrooms
- Pop-Up Chemistry, a collaboration with the Redwood City Library to provide middle school students and their families monthly hands-on science experiments with both materials and instruction
- Monitoring Water Quality, a hands-on science project for school children to take responsibility for monitoring their watershed
- Paving the Path, a mentoring program for community college students navigating the transition to 4-year institutions
In her professional life at Vera Therapeutics in Brisbane, Jigisha is a member of the regulatory affairs team, working through peer-to-peer interaction with life science partners in navigating the regulatory submission life-cycle.
Prior to her work in regulatory affairs, Jigisha taught organic chemistry at San Jose City College. Her doctoral research at Syracuse University under the guidance of Dr. John Chisholm centered on reactions of indoles with trichloroacetimidates. Jigisha grew up in India where she received her B.Sc. in Chemistry in 2006 and M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry in 2008 from Fergusson College, India.
During her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and sparking children’s interest in science.
Statement: My involvement in the Silicon Valley Section of the American Chemical Society has opened doors to new opportunities that would not have been possible otherwise. I am connected through our local section to a network of exceptional chemists both locally and nationally. After many years of being on the receiving end of this support, it is fulfilling to contribute my time and efforts back into our community. As the secretary and the past chair of the section, I have been exposed to a wide range of ACS activities and am well positioned to choose impactful directions for my efforts as a member of the ExComm. I will strive both to serve our existing members’ needs by developing key engagement and networking strategies, and to empower the next generation of chemists by supporting outreach, Student Chapters, and YCC, modernizing events to be of higher practical value and building a future pipeline into our organization.