Early Career Accolade for Kyle Crabtree

Kyle Crabtree, associate professor of chemistry, has been recognized with the 2022 Early Career Award from the Laboratory Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). Crabtree has established a unique career at the intersection of molecular laboratory astrophysics, astronomical observations and astrochemical modeling, the AAS said in a statement. 

The award commends his research on chemical reactions that create complex organic molecules in areas of space where stars are forming. In addition to building state-of-the-art spectrometers to study these chemical reactions, he also conducts computational modeling to better understand how molecules behave in space. His experiments focus on molecules that may be precursors to life. 

Crabtree earned his doctorate in chemistry at the University of Illinois in 2012, and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics before joining the UC Davis faculty in 2014. He was a UC Davis Hellman Fellow in 2016 and received a National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2021.

— Becky Oskin, content strategist in the College of Letters and Science