Valerie Ashby

Valerie Sheares Ashby is a chemist and university professor who was formerly chair of the chemistry department at the University of North Carolina, and currently serves as Dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences at Duke University. With her research group, she holds ten patents.

Ashby was born and grew up in Clayton, North Carolina. She was first introduced to science through her father, who was a high school math and science teacher.

In 1988, Ashby graduated from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in chemistry. Following her undergraduate studies, Ashby completed her doctoral studies, also at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, between September 1989 and August 1994. She worked as a research assistant in the lab of Professor Joseph M. DeSimone and completed her thesis, entitled Synthesis and Characterization of Thiophene-Based Poly(Arylene Ether Ketones) and Poly(Arylene Ether Sulfones), in August 1994.

During her time at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ashby worked as a visiting scientist at IBM at the Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California, from May 1992 to August 1992 where she worked on the Synthesis of Thiophene-Containing Poly(ether imide)s. She also spent the summer of 1993 as a visiting scientist at Eastman Chemical Company in Kingsport, Tennessee, where she worked on the "Examination of the Role of Catalysts in Color Body Origin in Poly(ester amide)s."

After graduation she worked as a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow and NATO Postdoctoral Fellow at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz Institute for Organic Chemistry in Mainz, Germany under the direction of Professor Reimund Stadler. Her work was entitled Synthesis of ABC Block Copolymers.

To begin her professional career, Ashby started at Iowa State University as an assistant professor in January 1996. She was promoted to Associate Professor in August 2002. She spent August 2003 to June 2004 on sabbatical leave at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts under the direction of Professor Robert Langer. While at Iowa State she was a mentor for the Iowa State University Program for Women in Science & Engineering which was a summer research program for undergraduate and high school students.

In August 2003 she also began her appointment as Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While an associate professor, Ashby was awarded an NSF grant that aimed to increase the number of underrepresented minorities receiving doctoral degrees in STEM fields. Her worked helped to increase the PhD completion rate for underrepresented minorities from about 60% to 85% at the university. She was appointed Vice Chair of Undergraduate Studies in August 2005. Ashby was granted the rank of full professor and the Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professor of Chemistry in July 2007. In July 2012 she was named Chair of the Department of Chemistry at UNC and the faculty director of the UNC Chapel Hill Graduate School Initiative for Minority Excellence (IME) in July 2014.

Through her career, Ashby has accumulated numerous awards including the National Science Foundation Career Development Award, the DuPont Young Faculty Award, the 3M Young Faculty Award, the UNC Chapel Hill General Alumni Association Faculty Service Award, the J. Carlyle Sitterson Freshman Teaching Award, the UNC Student Undergraduate Teaching Award, and the Johnston Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching.

On Thursday May 7, 2015 Duke University President Richard H. Brodhead and Provost Sally Kornbluth announced that Ashby would be the next dean of Trinity College of Arts & Sciences at Duke University succeeding Laurie Patton, who became the new president of Middlebury. The search committee that nominated and unanimously supported Ashby consisted of faculty members, students, administrators and trustees.

• "Shape Memory Materials and Biomaterials with Fabrication of Nanoscopic and Microscopic Features", Patent filed, 5/14.
• "Iodinated Polymers for CT Contrast Agents", Patent filed 8/14.
• "Polyester Based Degradable Materials and Implantable Biomedical Articles Formed Therefrom", issued 9/6/11, U.S. Patent No. 8,013,061
• "pH-Sensitive Methacrylic Copolymers and the Production Thereof", issued 1/07, U.S. Patent Number 7,160,971.
• "Functionalized Diene Monomers and Polymers Containing Functionalized Dienes and Methods for Their Preparation", Continuation issued 6/03, Patent No. 6,583,260
• "Functionalized Diene Monomers and Polymers Containing Functionalized Dienes and Methods for Their Preparation", Continuation Issued 2/02, Patent No. 6,344,538
• "Functionalized Diene Monomers and Polymers Containing Functionalized Dienes and Methods for Their Preparation", Issued 8/00, Patent No. 6,100,373
• "High Performance Fluorinated Polymers and Methods", Issued 2/03, Patent No. 6,515,101
• "Polyester Based Degradable Materials and Implantable Biomedical Articles Formed Therefrom", Issued 2/13, Patent No. 8,383,725