University of North Carolina Asheville Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Ryan Steed, Ph.D., has been selected as a new Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar for 2026 by the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation. Each year, the Foundation selects eight teacher-scholars from a national pool of faculty within the first 12 years of their academic careers. The award comes with an unrestricted $75,000 research grant to support the scholar’s work with students. Steed plans to use the funding to sustain his current research at a high level and to invest in computational and automation tools that enhance student training and productivity.

Key facts:

• 47 UNCA students mentored in undergraduate research projects, plus 11 high school interns

• 150 additional students involved in research through semester-long project labs

• 28 student research presentations at regional and national conference

• 7 peer-reviewed research publications with 37 student co-authors

• $1.9 M in external research funding plus additional funding for student support programs

• His awards include four grants from the National Institutes of Health, among them UNC Asheville’s first NIH grant since 1996. His work has also led to two patent filings, the first in the university’s history.

Steed’s research with UNC Asheville Chemistry and Biochemistry students examines the mechanism and inhibition of bacterial energy metabolism, or how bacteria convert nutrients into the energy that powers their growth and, in some cases, causes disease. The work centers on ATP synthase, a molecular machine that works like a tiny turbine. Just as a water turbine generates electricity from water flowing downhill, ATP synthase uses the downhill flow of protons within a cell to create high-energy ATP molecules.

Students use genetic and biochemical tools to tinker with this machine and learn how it controls the movement of protons. In collaboration with UNC Asheville chemist Amanda Wolfe, the team uses that knowledge to design inhibitor molecules that jam the machine, shut down energy production, and kill the bacteria. The long-term goal is to develop these inhibitors into antibiotics against bacteria that are prevalent in hospitals and increasingly resistant to existing drugs.

Building a biochemistry program from the ground up

Since joining UNC Asheville in 2016 as its only biochemist, Steed has led the development of the university’s biochemistry curriculum. His work produced new courses and new teaching and research collaborations among faculty, and it culminates next fall with the launch of a new B.S. in Biochemistry. Today, more than two-thirds of the department’s chemistry graduates concentrate in biochemistry, and the department changed its name to Chemistry and Biochemistry in 2019.

“Ryan is the ideal teacher-scholar,” said Sally Wasileski, Ph.D., dean of UNC Asheville’s College of Natural and Human Sciences and former chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “He took biochemistry from a nascent idea to one of our greatest strengths and points of pride, and he did it while mentoring students in research that matters, from the fundamental science of how bacteria make energy to the search for new antibiotics. Our students are better scientists because of him, and this national recognition is richly deserved.”  

Steed was named the Glaxo Wellcome Distinguished Professor of Undergraduate Science Research in 2024, received UNC Asheville’s Distinguished Scholarship and Creative Achievement Award in 2025, and was promoted to full professor in 2026.