Dr. Shah received her B.Sc. in Chemistry in 2006 and M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry in 2008 from Fergusson College in the city of Pune, India. For her doctoral degree, she performed research on reactions of indoles with trichloroacetimidates at Syracuse University under the guidance of Professor John Chisholm.
When Jigisha relocated to California, she taught organic chemistry at San Jose City College. She then joined Cytokinetics in South San Francisco as a member of the regulatory affairs team, working through peer-to-peer interaction with life science partners in navigating the regulatory submission process.
As a newcomer to our Local Section in 2016, Jigisha volunteered to represent the section in hosting the 2017 ACS National Meeting in San Francisco. She then served as our section’s Secretary and a year later as our Chair-Elect. As
Chair, she led the section while handling the additional challenges of COVID. Her selection of speakers and topics for monthly meetings provided fascinating speakers on a wide range of topics with broad appeal to both ACS members and to the outside community.
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 continuing leadership activity, she cultivates a close relationship with the leadership of the adjacent California Local Section through coproducing joint events. Beneficiaries of this joint activity have been YCC (Younger Chemists) and WCC (Women’s Chemistry). Dr. Shah also served on the Strategic Planning Committee that drafted the current framework of goals under which our Local Section operates.
Submitted by Peter Rusch, Chair of the Ottenberg Award Committee
