Christina Bodurow Credit:
Courtesy of the American Chemical Society Office of the Secretary and General Counsel
The American Chemical Society’s 2026 president-elect, Christina Bodurow, has followed a career path that many aspiring chemists might not be thinking about in the laboratory.
As a chemist who started her career researching organometallics to make natural products, Bodurow has spent the last 40 years in a wide variety of research and development (R&D) roles, including drug development, R&D operations, and project management—all related to medicine development. Bodurow has reengineered multiple business functions into successful global operations, she recently told the Life Science Lab podcast, which is produced by the Indiana Biosciences Research Institute (IBRI), where she is senior vice president of project management.
Her roles within ACS reflect a similar aptitude for business and planning, with her having served on the Committees on Economic and Professional Affairs, Budget and Finance, and Strategic Alignment.
But how does one go from the laboratory to a boardroom? What might seem like two different worlds actually need each other for progress, she says.
A problem-solver and people person
“Project management provides a framework and a discipline as to how we approach the scientific problems we’re working on,” Bodurow says in the podcast.
“Chemists are kind of by nature problem-solvers, so I think that the many years of chemistry training and the chemistry discipline that you receive when you go through that is certainly probably part of it,” Bodurow says. “But on the other hand, I just love organizing science.”
Project management isn’t just organizing though, Bodurow acknowledges—it’s also a people-person job. In addition to organizing science and data, she has to coordinate the activities of everyone in the room.
A specific skill that helps is executive composure, or the ability to remain calm and professional. Bodurow, in the podcast, reveals that a key to mastering this skill is getting comfortable with conflict: when you’re organizing people, there are bound to be different opinions.
“We learn that starting in our undergraduate chemistry courses . . . people have to kind of knock heads a little bit and look at different perspectives about how to solve a problem, or how to look at a problem or the chemistry of a problem, and that extends into business.”
The interdisciplinary nature of things and working together
A tangible example of project management in ACS is CAS, a division of the society that focuses on how best to provide chemical information to scientists around the world. This mission requires a lot of project management while upholding a certain trust and reliability in the information, Bodurow says.
“The ACS is a really interesting organization because it consists of chemists from all around the world,” Bodurow says. The 32 different divisions of scientific disciplines stand out to her in that “they’re all striving to be on the cutting edge.” And because of this organization into divisions, members have immediate access to thousands of chemists in any given field.
Bodurow notes the interdisciplinary nature of these divisions too, and again, the importance of working together. “Part of my objective in my presidential term is to create more of those interactions.” She imagines five to eight divisions collaborating to unlock innovative ways to address certain global challenges, such as in medicine development, energy, and chemistry and space.
“Project management provides a framework and a discipline as to how we approach the scientific problems we’re working on.”
When asked about the effectiveness of collaboration, such as group size, she says, “My experience has been the bigger the better. We actually have communities of hundreds of chemists that work together across the globe, and they’re joined together in various initiatives, and they work together as a community—it’s pretty amazing, and it does work like that in chemistry.”
“There are many scientists who make a transition to project management in a wide variety of fields,” Bodurow tells C&EN in an email. “Several motivators include a curiosity about what other kinds of science are involved in the particular project(s) . . . one is working on. What are the connections between the science [and] the interdependency of the experiments that enables the project to progress? If these topics are continually in your mind, and you enjoy organizing project work, then project management may be a great fit for you!”
Striving for better, and growth for the next generation and yourself
On what she’s looking forward to in her new job, Bodurow mentions the Catalyze Indiana initiative, which enhances chemistry in Indiana by giving students in academia the chance to work in laboratories in industry.
Bodurow says incorporating green chemistry into this program is another way forward and will help make the students in this program more competitive in industry, which is important to her.
She wants to make sure that students and future chemists are prepared for their careers and that they are not only prepared but can strive to do better, she says.
And in striving to do better herself, Bodurow hopes that her journey of being ACS president will unlock new ways to boost future chemists.
C&EN asked Bodurow, in reflecting on her own journey to project management, if she had any suggestions for students in figuring out if it’s something they enjoy. She suggests asking some self-reflective questions: Am I interested in doing/supporting multidisciplinary work versus solely focusing on my area of study? Do I like working with people? Do I like organizing teams to achieve a goal and working with them to achieve it?
“These are all basic elements of a project manager profile, and if you can relate to them, then find a few project managers and take them to lunch or a coffee to learn more about their jobs,” she says.
2026 American Chemical Society
