| Number 32 | John L. Burmeister, Editor | August 2005 |
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Ms. Georgiana Sorm Beachell, who had been married to the late Prof. Emeritus Harold Beachell (FAC 46-75), died on 2/18/05. Georgiana was also a chemist by training, having graduated in 1940 from Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH.
Ms. Yoki Ben Israel, the artist who created, in 1986, the Periodic Table/Chessboard mural that hangs in the foyer of Brown Laboratory, died during the same week in February.
Dr. John Biggins, a post-doctoral associate working in the laboratory of Prof. John Koh, is one of 20 young U.S. scientists recently named Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellows.
Prof. Fred W. Billmeyer, Jr. (ADJ FAC 51-64) died, at the age of 85, on 12/12/04. Fred worked in DuPont’s Plastics Department from 1945-1964, whereupon he moved to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as a professor of analytical chemistry (see complete obituary in C&E News, 3/7/05, p. 50.)
Prof. Thomas B. Brill, Jr. gave an invited talk on polymorphism in energetic materials at the International Crystallography School in Erice, Sicily, last June. He also coauthored a book on recent advances in energetic materials research that was published this summer.
The following faculty and staff were honored with service awards at a dinner
hosted by President David P. Roselle at Clayton Hall on 5/4/05 (years of service
in square brackets):
Ms. M. Elaine Brimm (STAFF) [20], Prof. John L. Burmeister [40], Mr. Michael
J. DiMauro (STAFF)[20], and Prof. Susan E. Groh [20].
Mr. Dana S. Chatellier (MS86, STAFF) received an Outstanding Adult Educator Award from the Division of Professional and Continuing Studies on Honors Day, 5/6/05.
Dr. Allen A. Denio (FAC 78-79, 98-99) has penned a delightful retrospective of his 34-year professorial career at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, “Fun and Games in the Classroom,” in the May, 2005 edition of the Del-Chem Bulletin (p.8).
Prof. Cecil R. Dybowski has been named a Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, joining Profs. Roberta Colman, Burnaby Munson, Douglass Taber, and Klaus Theopold.
Willis F. Harrington Prof. Emeritus Jean H. Futrell (FAC 86-99, CHAIR 86-95, 96-97) has been recognized by the ACS for having achieved 50-year membership status. Jean, who is currently the Chair of the Council of Battelle Fellows at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, WA, returned to the U of D to present a seminar in our Department on 4/22/05. Jean notes that, shortly after arriving at UC-Berkeley to do his graduate work, he asked Prof. Joel Hildebrand (then ACS President) to nominate him for ACS membership. The application was returned with the notation that the recommendations of two ACS members in good standing were required!
Dr. Matthew Gage (PT FAC), a Post-Doctoral Associate of Prof. Anne Robinson
(CHEG), has accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of
Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of
Northern Arizona, Flagstaff.
Dr. Richard C. Gearhart’s (PhD72, PT FAC) CHEM-100 Chemistry and the Human Environment WebCT course has been recognized as a winner of this year’s My Courses Exemplary Application Contest Award.
Prof. Susan E. Groh, adviser to the local chapter of the Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society since 2000, has won one of five Executive Director Adviser Awards given by the Society’s national office.
Prof. Emeritus Richard F. Heck (FAC 71-89) was honored with the ACS-Delaware Section’s 28th annual Carothers Award on 4/19/05.
The chemical roots of the Mosher family run deep. Prof. Emeritus William A. Mosher (FAC 45-72, CHAIR 45-69) is one of five Mosher chemists profiled in an article on chemically-oriented families in the spring, 2005 issue of Chemistry, published by the ACS.
Mr. Douglas A. Nixon (STAFF), master glass technologist in the CHEM/BIOC Department for the past 16 years, was profiled in the 3/18/05 issue of the Newark Post (p. 8).
Prof. Emeritus Joseph H. Noggle (FAC 71-98) may have died in 1998, but his
educational legacy lives on. His many contributions to chemical education were
recognized at the ACS National Meeting in August in Washington, DC with a symposium
in his honor, cosponsored by the Divisions of Chemical Education and Computers
in Chemistry.
Dr. Peter G. Sparks (STAFF 70-74), our Department’s first Assistant to
the Chair, has retired, in a manner of speaking, to aptly named Carefree, AZ,
where he has initiated yet another new career as a photographer.
Prof. Douglass F. Taber gave two international plenary lectures this past academic year at the International Conference on the Chemistry-Biology Interface: Synergistic New Frontiers (Delhi, India, 11/04) and the Symposium on the Chemistry and Biology of Biomolecules (Montpellier, France, 3/05).
Prof. Klaus H. Theopold was kept busy during his month-long stay in Japan (1/05) on a JSPS Invitation Fellowship. He gave lectures at the Toyonaka and Suita campuses of Osaka University, the Katsura and Uji campuses of Kyoto University, The O-okayama and Nagatsuda campuses of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo University, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Okayama University, Kyushu University, Nakasaki University and Nagoya University, as well as at RIKEN (Tokyo), Mitsubishi Chemical Co., Sumitomo Chemical Co., and the Institute of Molecular Science (Okazaki).
Dr. Swiatoslaw (Jerry) Trofimenko (VIS SCHOLAR) has also celebrated his golden anniversary as an ACS member. Jerry’s development of the polypyrazolate (scorpionate) ligand system was featured in a retrospective article in the 12/04 issue of La Chimica e l’Industria (pp. 94-100). He gave this year’s Habermann Lecture at Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI in May.
Prof. Emeritus Robert H. Wood (57-02, CHAIR 69-71) may have formally retired,
but his research program resembles the Energizer Bunny - it just keeps going
and going! He published three papers during the past academic year and gave
invited lectures at the National Institute of Science and Technology, in Gaithersburg,
MD in June, and at the August National ACS Meeting in Washington, DC.