Two University of Missouri Biochemistry researchers won departmental Faculty Fellowship Awards for outstanding service.

Shari Freyermuth, associate teaching professor of Biochemistry and assistant dean for Academic Programs at the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, was recognized for her outstanding service in improving Biochemistry undergraduate advising, thus making life much easier for Biochemistry faculty members who are formal undergraduate advisors.

Frank Schmidt and Shari Freyermuth.

Frank Schmidt, professor of Biochemistry, was given the award for sustained service contributions to MU as acknowledged by the 2014 Presidential Faculty Award for University Citizenship (Service).

Freyermuth earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry and genetics from Duke University. She came to MU in 1992 as a postdoctoral fellow and began teaching in Biochemistry in 1998. She was named the Assistant Dean of Academic Programs in CAFNR in 2009 and the Director of Undergraduate Advising in Biochemistry in 2011.

She won CAFNR’s Outstanding Undergraduate Advisor Award in 2013, the Outstanding Senior Teaching Award in 2007, and the Outstanding Instructor in Biochemistry award in 2002.

She serves on the Pre‐professional Scholars Program Committee at the MU Medical School, and is a member of the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture. She has been a guest lecturer in Agricultural Economics discussing ethical issues in agriculture. Her work has been cited in the International Journal of Science Education, and PLOS Biology.

Schmidt earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin.

Schmidt received the Presidential Faculty Award for University Citizenship in Service from the UM System earlier this year. He chaired two National Institutes of Health Special Emphasis Panels since 1999. Schmidt earned MU’s William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence in 2007, and the MU Human Rights Achievement Award in 1995.

His laboratory uses combinatorial biochemistry to study problems related to the origin of life and to develop new ways to prevent infectious disease in humans, domestic animals and plants.

Schmidt’s research, done in collaboration with faculty in the CAFNR Plant Sciences program, can also apply the same principles to finding molecular species that can inhibit the growth of infectious microorganisms. This work has focused on inhibiting the life cycle of Phytophthora, a pathogen that infects a variety of plants. Ongoing work is directed at finding species that can inhibit soybean pathogens.