From Yankton to a $250K Prize: Chemist Frank Leibfarth Upscales Plastics and Tackles PFAS

Frank Leibfarth Wins $250,000 Blavatnik Award for Practical Chemistry Solutions

Frank Leibfarth, a native of Yankton, South Dakota, accepted a $250,000 Blavatnik Chemical Sciences Laureate award at a ceremony at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The Blavatnik National Award is the world’s largest unrestricted prize for scientists; winners may use the funds as they see fit. Leibfarth, 41, was one of three laureates under age 42 selected from an initial pool of 310 nominees representing 161 institutions.

Practical science: turning waste into value

Leibfarth is the Royce Murray Distinguished Term Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His lab develops chemical technologies to upcycle the two most widely produced — and hardest-to-recycle — plastics, polyethylene and polypropylene, converting them into higher-value materials for industrial uses. Examples include durable materials suitable for high-end plumbing piping and tough compounds similar to the second layer of a golf ball.

A better filter for PFAS — and real-world impact

His team also created a new adsorbent material for removing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), the so-called "forever chemicals," from municipal water supplies. The material, used like the packed media in a household pitcher filter, can operate about 35% longer than current commercial alternatives with the same volume of packing. Their work helped launch the NC Pure Center after North Carolina discovered high PFAS levels in the Cape Fear River in 2017; state legislators provided $10 million to scale and test new PFAS-removal technologies in municipal plants.

Background and approach

Leibfarth credits his South Dakota upbringing and the University of South Dakota for giving him the freedom to pursue hands-on, curiosity-driven science. Neither of his parents completed a four-year degree; his father worked as a truck driver and a carpenter, and the experience of building and making things by hand shaped Leibfarth’s interest in materials. He also played football as a kicker at USD while engaging in undergraduate research — an experience he says allowed him creative freedom outside traditional Ivy League norms.

“Because I was not a part of that [Ivy League] culture, I didn’t know what unwritten rules I was breaking. It allowed me to have a little more creative freedom and follow my gut,” Leibfarth said.

From lab to community

Leibfarth emphasizes that developing a laboratory method is only the first step: scaling, testing, and putting materials into the hands of utilities is essential to producing real public-health and environmental benefits. He plans to use the unrestricted Blavatnik award money to accelerate translation of his lab’s PFAS and plastics technologies into widespread use and to refine the process so it can be repeated across his career.

On science funding and long-term innovation

Leibfarth defended sustained federal science funding, noting that while industry R&D budgets — especially in large pharma — can exceed national science budgets, academia plays a critical role in early-stage, long-horizon research. Those federal investments enable researchers to pursue ideas 10–20 years out; cutting that funding risks weaker economic and technological returns in the future.

Key facts: Blavatnik award: $250,000 (unrestricted). Age: 41. Initial nominee pool: 310 from 161 institutions; 18 finalists. NC Pure Center funding: $10 million. PFAS regulations and treatment needs: EPA set new rules recently and an estimated 6,000+ treatment plants will need PFAS solutions.