| Number 31 | John L. Burmeister, Editor | August 2004 |
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Having concluded my 40th year at the University of Delaware, I am, quite naturally, in a retrospective mood. Casting about for a student-centered feature that has extended throughout these four decades, I have hit upon the one undergraduate award that has been presented every year during my tenure - the American Chemical Society Prize/Award in Chemistry, which was initiated sometime prior to my arrival in September, 1964.
My compilation of the list of ACS Awardees has revealed the expected (collectively, these students comprise a panoply of our best and brightest, as is reflected in their subsequent accomplishments), a surprise (more about that in a moment), and an annoying sidebar. The lastnamed surfaced in the form of four "whereabouts unknown" awardees. The fact that all four are women is most probably due to our Alumni Office's policy of listing female graduates only by their married name, if they decide to use their husband's name after marriage. I would very much appreciate being brought up-to-date by all such alumnae.
The surprise became evident immediately, when I read the description of the ACS Prize in the 1965 U of D Honors Day Program:
The 1965 recipient, Stephen B. Brumbach, Ph.D. (BS66), is now living in Rock Springs, WY.
We saw the error of our ways immediately thereafter, and changed the description to read .... outstanding Junior man and Junior woman [emphasis added] in 1966:
| 1966 | Wayne A. Fenton (BS67), Research Scientist, Kinetics Department, Yale University School of Medicine Wilma A. (King) Olson, Ph.D. (BS67), Mary 1. Bunting Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Center for Molecular Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry, Rutgers University |
| 1967 | Mary K. Albright, whereabouts unknown Reed E. Pyeritz, Ph.D., M.D. (BS68), Chief of Medical Genetics, University of Pennsylvania |
| 1968 | Liana Dicou, Ph.D. (BS69), living in Athens, Greece Ronald K. Scheule, Ph.D. (BS69), Senior Research Scientist, Genzyme Corporation |
| 1969 | Noreen C. Campbell (BS70, MS73), Manager, Ink Jet Print Production, DuPont Company Hans H. Feindt, Ph.D. (BS70), Director, Quidel Corporation |
| In 1970, man and woman was changed to men and women: | |
| 1970 | Lawrence S. Bernstein, Ph.D. (BS71), Principal Research Scientist, Spectral Sciences, Inc. Walter G. Blenderman, Ph.D. (BS71), Chemistry/Physics Teacher, North Plainfield, NJ Patricia J. Byrne, whereabouts unknown |
| 1971 | Susan E. (Breen) Bailey, M.D. (BS72), living in Festus, MO Richard J. Taylor, Ph.D. (BS72) Associate Professor of Chemistry, Miami (OH) University |
| 1972 | Katherine A. Holter, Ph.D. (BS73), Senior Scientist, Bechtel Group, Inc. Robert E. Mammarella, Ph.D. (BS73), Principal Engineer, Polaroid Corporation |
| In 1973, the Prize became a singular award, given simply to the outstanding junior: | |
| 1973 | Judith L. Allison, Ph.D. (BS74), Research Chemist (retired), Rohm & Haas |
| 1974 | Linda J. Pike, Ph.D. (BS75), Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University (St. Louis) Medical School |
| In 1975, the ACS Prize became the ACS Award, and the description
was modified thusly .... outstanding scholarship and achievement to a junior ....: | |
| 1975 | D. Steven Mackey (BA78), living.in Kalamazoo, MI |
| 1976 | Joan V. Boegel (BS77), Senior Environmental Engineer, Polaroid Corporation |
| 1977 | Joseph E. Plevyak (BS78), Global Program Manager, Dow Corning Corporation |
| 1978 | Michael V. Voelker (BS79), Operations Manager, Procter & Gamble Company |
| 1979 | Neil W. Boaz, Ph.D. (BS80), Senior Research Associate, Eastman Chemical Company |
| 1980 | Eileen M. Fleck, whereabouts unknown |
| 1981 | Tracy L. (Simpson) Olson, Ph.D. (BS82), Senior Scientist, Alkermes, Inc. |
| 1982 | Bryan J. Gallagher, M.D. (BS84),Endocrinology Fellow Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State University |
| 1983 | Suzanne A. Kretchmar, whereabouts unknown |
| 1984 | Germain P. Sutton, Ph.D. (BS85), Senior R&D Scientist, Americhem, Inc. |
| 1985 | Thomas J. Magyarik (BS86), living in New Castle, DE |
| 1986 | Christopher M. Hadad, Ph.D. (BS87), Associate Professor of Chemistry, Ohio State University |
| 1987 | Darius J. Robinson, Ph.D. (BS88), Research Chemist, DuPont Company |
| 1988 | Kristi L. Kiick, Ph.D. (BS89), Assistant Professor of Materia1s Science, University of Delaware |
| 1989 | Steven J. Stuart, Ph.D. (BS90), Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Clemson University |
| In 1990, a cash prize of $200, provided by an anonymous donor, was added to the ACS Award portfolio: | |
| 1990 | Holly C. Gaede, Ph.D. (BS91), Associate Professor of Chemistry, Ursinus College |
| 1991 | Michael J. Bower, Ph.D. (BS92) Associate Director of Computational Chemistry, Incyte Genomics |
| 1992 | Karl B. Hansen, Ph.D. (BS93), Research Chemist, Merck & Co. |
| 1993 | Megan C. (McDermott) Wagaman (BS94), living in Wilmington, DE |
| In 1994, in response to our burgeoning number of BS/BIOC majors, the major qualifier was changed to .... majoring in chemistry or biochemistry: | |
| 1994 | Raymond C. Trievel, Ph.D. (BS95), Research Scientist, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health |
| 1995 | Roger F. Clark (BS96), Senior Process Engineer, BP Solarex |
| 1996 | Keith R. Hornberger, Ph.D. (BS97), Medicinal Chemist, GlaxoSmithKline |
| 1997 | B. Jill (Trafton) Venton, Ph.D. (BS98), Post-doctoral Associate, location unknown |
| In 1998, the monetary component of the ACS Award was increased to $500, courtesy of the Alberta E. Edge (BA35) Endowment: | |
| 1998 | Stacey L. Sheasley (BS99) M.D./Ph.D. Program, University of Virginia Medical School |
| 1999 | James B. Witkoskie (BSOO);Doctoral Candidate, MIT |
| 2000 | Kathryn E. O'Reilly (BS01), M.D./Ph.D. Program, Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan-Kettering Tri-Institutional Program |
| 2001 | Valerie J. Dzubeck (BS02), Doctoral Candidate, University of Texas-Austin |
| 2002 | Christopher J. Eller (BS03), Medical Student, University of Virginia |
| 2003 | Stephen G. Brohawn (BS04), Doctoral Candidate, MIT |
| 2004 | Christopher W. amEnde, Senior Year Beckman Scholar |
One salient statistic produced by the preceding list begs to be highlighted: of the 41 ACS Awardee graduates whose current status is known, a remarkable 85% have earned a Ph.D. or M.D. (or both), or are currently working toward same. This goes hand-in-glove with the most recent data provided by the National Science Foundation, which indicates that, over the 1993-2002 decade, we ranked 21/1052 among all U.S. colleges and universities in terms of the number of our baccalaureate graduates (70) who earned doctorates in chemistry during that period.
To all of the ACS Awardees: heartiest congratulations, and sincere thanks for making our Department (and yours truly, in particular) part of your life's journeys.