On April 17th, 2026, the Chemistry Department hosted the first-ever Distinguished Alumni Awards Ceremony. The Ceremony, which was held in conjunction with the WashU Alumni Reunion Weekend/Thurtene Carnival and Chemistry Homecoming, honored three Chemistry alums who achieved distinction in their careers and exemplify scientific excellence, leadership, and integrity.
Nominations for the Distinguished Alumni Award were submitted by individuals of the WashU community and previous alumni. After a meticulous selection process, the Chemistry Department announced Professor Robert Guy Griffin (PHD `69), Dr. Eric Furfine (BA `81), and Dr. Natalie LaFranzo (PHD `13) as the awardees.
During the Awards Ceremony, the awardees shared stories of their educational and personal experiences in the Chemistry Department and the impact it had on their lives and career accomplishments. In attendance were the awardees' families, their colleagues, former Department alumni, and current faculty, staff, and students.
About the Awardees
Eric Furfine, BA`81 - Dr. Furfine is the CEO and CSO of Mosaic Biosciences, an integrated biologics discovery partner advancing complex anti
body and protein therapeutics. Their approach combines antibody discovery, protein engineering, and translational pharmacology to move programs from concept to candidate selection with scientific rigor and speed. Mosaic partners with biopharma, biotechnology, and academic teams to deliver integrated biologics discovery capabilities that combine scientific expertise, proprietary technologies, and collaborative engagement models to advance programs efficiently from concept through candidate selection.
Prior to Mosaics, Dr. Furfine was Chief Science Officer for Ohana Biosciences and Eleven Biotherapeutics. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry from WashU and then earned his PhD in 1987 from Brandeis University. He completed his postdoc in Molecular Parasitology at the University of California, San Francisco in 1989.
Bob Griffin, PhD`69 - Professor Griffin is the Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry at MIT, where his research is devoted to the development of new magnetic resonance techniques to study molecular structure and dynamics. He is also the Director of the Francis Bitter Magnet Laboratory, also at MIT. He was awarded the ISMAR (International Society of Magnetic Resonance ) Prize in 2010 and the Günther Laukien Prize for NMR research in 2007. In 2021, he was elected member of the U. S. National Academy of Sciences.
Professor Griffin earned a PhD in chemistry from WashU, and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Arkansas in 1964.
Natalie LaFranzo, PhD`13 - Dr. LaFranzo leads Oncology Lifecycle Management for lung cancer diagnosis at Natera, a global leader in cell-free DNA testing, dedicated to oncology, women’s health, and organ health. She intentionally left the research bench to begin her career at the interface of science and business. She has held roles across all areas of commercialization for life science tools and diagnostics companies including Personalis, Cofactor Genomics, and Horizon Discovery. Prior to joining Natera, she served as the VP of Strategy at LINUS. She is a Director-At-Large for the American Chemical Society, where she has been a member since 2007.
Dr. LaFranzo earned her PhD in chemistry from WashU, and a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry from Bradley University in 2007. She was the Cheerleading coach for the WashU Bears squad for 12 years.
