# Carolyn Bertozzi on Reddit (u/Carolyn_Bertozzi)

Part of Scientists on Reddit, researched with Autumn (https://www.autumn.ai) from public sources. Updated 2026-11-07. Interactive version: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/scientists-on-reddit/carolyn-bertozzi

Carolyn Bertozzi: Chemist, 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

- Reddit account: [u/Carolyn_Bertozzi](https://www.reddit.com/user/Carolyn_Bertozzi/) (AMA only)
- How we know it's theirs: [The 2015 r/science AMA, posted from this account](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/3ae7uw/)
- Where they post, in the records we retrieved: r/science (18)
- Known activity in the posts we found: 2015 to 2015
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolyn_Bertozzi

## Moments

### u/Carolyn_Bertozzi in r/science, Jun 19, 2015 · Behind the scenes

Replying to a redditor:

> Hi Professor Bertozzi, I am a cardiologist and used to always value practice over academia. However, I recently gained a thirst for something more. I attained an additional degree in healthcare management and co-authored a paper in the NEJM. Do you have any advice for someone…

> From a practical perspective, teaching can be a muse for new research ideas.  Indeed, we developed a reaction called "copper-free click chemistry" that exploits the ring strain of a cyclooctyne reagent to activate its reaction with azides.  That idea came when I was writing my lecture on ring strain for sophomore organic chemistry students.

(Excerpt.)
Full thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/3ae7uw/comment/csc18mu/ · 21 points as of Nov 7, 2026

### u/Carolyn_Bertozzi in r/science, Jun 19, 2015 · Personal story

Replying to a redditor:

> Dr Bertozzi, I was fortunate enough to have lunch with you wen you visited Iowa last year. During the lunch with a group of grad students and post docs you talked at length how you never "planned out" your career but, instead, kept following your genuine interests and…

> I started as a biology major, maybe premed, but then fell in love with organic chemistry - synthesis and mechanism, really - when I took the intro organic chemistry course my sophomore year.  After that year, I tried to get a summer job in an organic synthesis lab but the doors were not open to women at that time (there is another discussion that can be had here, of course, that even involves Title IX, but I digress...).  So after many unsuccessful attempts, I finally conceded that my destiny would like squarely in biology and found a lab that would take me for the summer.
>
> Then, out of nowhere, the professor teaching my advanced physical organic chemistry course came up to me after class and offered me a summer research job.  I didn't know what he did - turned out to be a physical chemist - but accepted on the spot simply because someone in chemistry wanted to hire me.

(Excerpt.)
Full thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/3ae7uw/comment/csc2t2z/ · 17 points as of Nov 7, 2026

### u/Carolyn_Bertozzi in r/science, Jun 19, 2015 · Personal story

Replying to a redditor:

> As a new graduate student I'm struggling to develop networking skills along with finishing my experiments. I'm passionate about science but I also want to complete work in a timely manner and be pragmatic about my career. As an extremely successful scientist what are those…

> One thing I did learn in grad school which has been immensely helpful in all areas of life is how to be a "closer".  That is, how to bring a project to a stage of completion where you have a product to show for it (in grad school, that product being a publication of some substance).  When projects did not look like they had a path to closure, I learned how to redirect them toward such a path.  The lesson was learned the hard way.  My PhD advisor, a new assistant professor when I joined his lab, left the profession after my third year of grad school.  For the last two years, I and two lab mates had to figure out how to finish our PhD work, get published and get jobs, with little "grown up supervision".

(Excerpt.)
Full thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/3ae7uw/comment/csc28j7/ · 22 points as of Nov 7, 2026