Alexa Dembek honored with Alumni Fellow Award
Alexa Dembek, alumna of the Eberly College of Science, has been selected as one of 22 Penn Staters to receive the Alumni Fellow Award, the most prestigious award given by the Penn State Alumni Association. Since 1973, the Alumni Fellow Award has been given to select alumni who, as leaders in their professional fields, are nominated by an academic college and accept an invitation from the President of the University to return to campus to share their expertise with students, faculty, and administrators.
The new awardees will be presented with their awards on Oct 6 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. ET. This year’s award ceremony will be livestreamed by WPSU. Registration is free but will be required to access the livestream link.
Dembek graduated from Penn State in 1991 with a doctoral degree in chemistry. She has worked at the chemical company DuPont for more than 30 years. Dembek leads business and innovation strategy alignment to make the most impactful portfolio choices for DuPont. She is passionate about elevating the role sustainability plays in investment decisions and how DuPont can help customers achieve their own sustainability ambitions.
Prior to assuming her current role, Dembek led DuPont Central Research and Development. Throughout her career Dembek has been an ardent champion of the next generation of innovators. This, coupled with her commitment to talent development and inclusion, has prepared her well for current leadership role at DuPont.
Dembek serves on the dean’s advisory board for Penn State’s Eberly College of Science and is active with the Delaware Innovation Space, a partnership between the University of Delaware and the state that incubates startups. She is a recipient of Eberly’s Outstanding Science Alumni Award and is the author of 16 peer-reviewed journal articles, two symposia chapters, and five issued US patents.
In addition to her Penn State degree, she holds a degree in Chemistry from Northern Illinois University.
The Alumni Fellow program is administered by the Penn State Alumni Association in cooperation with the University's academic colleges, campuses and the Office of the President. Visit the Alumni Association’s website for more information on the honorees and the award.