Brandon Bloomer Named a Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow

MacMillan Lab Postdoc Brandon Bloomer has been named a 2025 Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow in the chemical sciences, one of just 14 young scientists nationwide to receive this distinction.

The award is given annually by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation to early-career chemists who underscore the Foundation’s mission of supporting basic research in chemical science, and who have the highest potential for success in the field. The fellowship comes with a two-year stipend (and a possible one-year extension) towards Bloomer’s salary and in support of his postdoctoral research.

“I was and still am in shock,” said Bloomer. “When I received the email, I was with my wife. I was so speechless that she thought I got fired. It is such an immense honor to be part of Arnold and Mabel Beckman’s mission to push the boundaries of science.

“I am extremely grateful to the Beckman Foundation as well as my mentors John (Hartwig) and Dave for pushing me and supporting me along the way. Honestly, I’ll stop at nothing to make sure I make this opportunity count, and I hope to make a real difference in the world someday.”

David MacMillan, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry and Bloomer’s adviser, said: “Brandon has been a fantastic coworker. He has developed a large range of new skills in the realm of chemical biology to complement his extensive capabilities in organic synthesis. And he has been relentless in his approach to getting to the heart of a number of major questions in biology using our micromap technology.”

In the MacMillan Lab, Bloomer uses the cutting-edge photocatalytic proximity labeling technology called micromap (μMap) to study everything from muscle disease to the immune system in cancer and infection. He said the Beckman Fellowship will enable him to use his background in synthesis and chemical kinetics to develop more specific μMap technologies and interrogate these systems with more selectivity.

“We are excited to celebrate our newest cohort of Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellows, a group whose work tackles complex scientific challenges ranging from developing new energy-efficient nitrogen-carbon bond formation reactions, building mass spectrometry probes designed for the spatial and temporal analysis of organoids, and using femtosecond x-ray lasers to observe short-lived diradical intermediaries in organic reactions,” said Anne Hultgren, executive director of the Foundation.  “Congratulations to the 2025 class of Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellows, and we can’t wait to see the impact you will make, both with your research discoveries and with your future career choices.”

Bloomer grew up in Levittown, PA. He earned his B.Sc. from Temple University in 2017, working with both the Sieburth Lab and the Wengryniuk Lab; and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2023 under the advisement of John Hartwig, where he engineered E. coli to utilize iridium porphyrins in biosynthesis and studied the mechanisms of reactions catalyzed by iridium-containing cytochromes.

Outside of the lab, Bloomer enjoys weightlifting, playing the guitar, and singing.

As part of the Beckman award, Bloomer will attend the Beckman Symposium in July.

For a full list of the 14 awardees, please click here.