Lynette Cegelski is an American physical chemist and chemical biologist working to uncover and define the chemistry that underlies outstanding challenges in human health and sustainability. She is the Monroe E. Spaght Professor of Chemistry and, by courtesy, of chemical engineering at Stanford University. She is a Stanford Bio-X and Stanford ChEM-H affiliated faculty member.
Cegelski studied chemistry at SUNY Binghamton in New York and graduated summa cum laude and a member of Phi Beta Kappa in 1998. She then worked in the lab of Jacob Schaefer at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), earning a PhD in Chemistry in 2004. Her post-doctoral work was in the laboratory of Scott Hultgren in Molecular Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the Washington University School of Medicine.
Research in the Cegelski lab addresses pressing challenges in human health, sustainability, and the environment. The group's interdisciplinary work uses chemical tools to uncover how complex biological systems are built and controlled, from understanding bacterial cell walls and biofilms to discovering new molecular structures like phosphoethanolamine (pEtN) cellulose, and translating those insights into therapeutic and sustainable materials solutions.
Cegelski has authored or co-authored multiple publications that have been cited 100 or more times. As of January 2021, these include:
Cegelski's work has earned her several awards: