Rate My Professor Anne McNeil

Anne McNeil serves as the Carol A. Fierke Collegiate Professor of Chemistry, Macromolecular Science and Engineering, and the Program in the Environment at the University of Michigan. She is also an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and an HHMI Professor. McNeil earned a B.S. in Chemistry summa cum laude from the College of William and Mary in 1999. She received her Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2005, where she worked with David Collum, and completed postdoctoral research as a L’Oréal USA Fellow with Timothy Swager at MIT from 2005 to 2007. She joined the University of Michigan faculty in 2007 as an assistant professor and advanced through the ranks to her current positions.

McNeil’s research centers on materials chemistry with applications in sustainable polymers via chemical recycling, detection and analysis of environmental microplastics, adsorbents for PFAS compounds, and materials for redox-flow batteries. Her earlier contributions include mechanistic studies of catalyst-transfer polymerization for conjugated polymers and the development of molecular gel sensors for analytes such as mercury ions, explosives, and enzymes. Among her honors are the Morley Award in 2026, the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019, the AAAS Fellowship in 2017, the Harold R. Johnson Diversity Award in 2020, and the Beckman Young Investigator Award in 2009. Recent publications include collaborative works on microplastic spectral identification and overestimation from laboratory materials in Analytical Chemistry (2025) and Environmental Science & Technology (2024), as well as studies on electrochemical processes from waste plastics in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (2025). McNeil teaches courses including Science and Sustainable Development and contributes to efforts advancing diversity in chemistry.