Education

BS – Colorado State University
PhD – Washington State University

Jenifer Shafer is a full Professor in the Chemistry Department and Nuclear Science & Engineering Program at the Colorado School of Mines and directs the Fundamental & Applied f-Element Research Group. She came to Mines following a Staff Scientist appointment at Pacific Northwest National Lab. She received her Ph.D. from Washington State University in 2010, and a B.S. from Colorado State University in 2005. Jenifer is interested in developing next-generation f-element separations to support advanced nuclear fuel cycles, national security, and renewable technologies. Current areas of particular interest include the use of new materials, supramolecular assembly, unique oxidation states, and controlling electronic structure.  She is the co-author of numerous book chapters, nearly 70 technical manuscripts, and has led or collaborated on projects receiving over $35M in funding from the DOE, DOD, DHS and NSF, with ~$5M directly supporting the efforts of the Fundamental and Applied F-Element Research Group. She currently serves as a Program Director at the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) managing research portfolios relevant to advanced nuclear energy.

Significant Leadership, Service & Honors
2022: ACS Fellow
2021-2023: Program Director | ARPA-E
2020-2022: Member | ACS Committee on Science | Policy Subcommittee
2020: Los Alamos National Laboratory Seaborg Visiting Fellow
2019-2020: Panelist | NAS Enhancing U.S. Nuclear Forensics and Attribution Support Capabilities
2019: Chair | ACS Division of Nuclear Chemistry & Technology
2017: ACS I&EC Class of Influential Researchers
2014: DOE Early Career Awardee

Top 5 cited pubs:

1. Braley, J.C.; Grimes, T.S.; Nash, K.L.*; Alternatives to HDEHP and DTPA for Simplified TALSPEAK Separations. Invited Paper, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2012, 51 (2), 629–638.
2. Kelley, M.; Su, J.; Urban, M.; Luckey, M.; Yang, P.*;Shafer, J.C.* On the origin of covalent bonding in heavy actinides. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2017, 139 (29), 9901–9908.
3. Silver, M.A.; Cary, S.K.; Johnson, J.A.; Baumbach, R.E.; Arico, A.A.; Luckey, M.; Urban, M.; Wang, J.C.; Polinski, M.J.; Chemey, A.; Lui, G.; Chen, K-W.; Van Cleve, S.M.: Marsh, M.L.; Eaton, T.M.; van de Burgt, L.J.; Gray, A.L.; Hobart, D.E.; Hanson, K.; Maron, L.; Braley, J.C.*; Albrecht-Schmitt, T.E.* Characterization of berkelium (III) dipicolinate and borate compounds in solution and the solid state. Science, 2016, 353 (6302), aaf3762.
4. Lumetta, G.J.*; Gelis, A.V.; Braley, J.C.; Carter, J.C.; Pittman, J.W.; Warner, M.G.; Vandegrift, G.F. The TRUSPEAK Concept: Combining CMPO and HDEHP for Separating Trivalent Lanthanides from the Transuranic Elements. Solv. Ext. Ion. Exch., 2013, 31 (3), 223-236.
5. Baldwin, A.G.; Ivanov, A.S.; Ellis, R.J.; Moyer, B.A.; Bryantsev, V.S.; Shafer, J.C.* Outer-Sphere Water Clusters Tune the Lanthanide Selectivity of Diglycolamides, ACS Cent. Sci., 2018, 4 (6), 739–747.