Rate My Professor Neal Yakelis

Neal Yakelis, Ph.D., serves as Professor of Chemistry at Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) in Tacoma, Washington. He obtained his B.S. in Chemistry with a minor in Spanish from Allegheny College in 1997, a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan in 2003, and completed an NIH Kirschstein Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley from 2003 to 2005. Since joining PLU, Yakelis has taught an extensive array of undergraduate courses, including CHEM 115 and 116: General Chemistry I and II with laboratories, CHEM 331 and 332: Organic Chemistry I and II, accompanying laboratories CHEM 333 and 334, CHEM 336: Organic Special Projects Laboratory, CHEM 410: Introduction to Research, CHEM 420: Instrumental Analysis, CHEM 440/487: Advanced Organic Chemistry and Advanced Special Topics, and CHEM 499: Chemistry Senior Capstone. As a vital member of the Pre-Health Sciences Advising Team for over a decade, he offers personalized guidance to chemistry majors and pre-health students, assisting with academic planning, study away integration, essay reviews, mock interviews, and clinical experience recommendations. This comprehensive approach has helped elevate PLU's admission rates to medical, dental, and pharmacy schools to approximately double the national averages. In 2025, he was honored with the Faculty Excellence Award in Advising for his compassionate and effective student support.

Yakelis's research specializations include Diels-Alder and retro-Diels-Alder reactions, synthesis and reactions of substituted N-hydroxyureas, drug-polymer conjugation, antimicrobial natural products, and green chemistry. In recent years, his work has focused on designing novel light-up RNA aptamer-fluorophore probes with tunable optical properties to illuminate RNA roles in cells. This effort is funded by a three-year, $215,500 RAISE grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, awarded in May 2022, in collaboration with researchers from Seattle Pacific University and Northwest University. Through PLU's Natural Sciences Summer Undergraduate Research Program, he has mentored students such as Daniel Bensen, Brady Grahe, Paige Hinman, and Lauren Lazarte. A key publication is 'Investigation of the dynamic nature of 1,2-oxazines derived from peralkylcyclopentadiene and nitrosocarbonyl species' by Boydston, A., Church, D., Kensy, V., Peterson, G., and Yakelis, N., published in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry (Vol. 14, 2016, pp. 5617-5621). He advises the PLU Chemistry Club, participates in events like Mole Day celebrations, and maintains memberships in the American Chemical Society (Organic Division and ACS Pride), National Organization of Gay & Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals, Council on Undergraduate Research, and Phi Beta Kappa.