Bringing chemistry to life, literally

A version of this essay will be presented at the American Chemical Society Spring 2024 meeting by 2024 Priestley Medal winner Carolyn Bertozzi, the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and the Baker Family Director of Stanford's interdisciplinary institute Sarafan ChEM-H. The American Chemical Society has shaped my professional life since my days as a student. I am deeply grateful for 30-plus years of engagement with the ACS mission and humbled to be situated among the list of Priestley Medalists, which includes many heroes and role models. My story begins in Lexington, Massachusetts, where I was the second of three daughters born to my father, Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics Professor Emeritus William Bertozzi, and my mother, former MIT Physics Department secretary Norma Bertozzi. They were children of immigrants from Italy and Nova Scotia, respectively, who met in their 20s while my father was