 Excellence Rewarded A Message from the Chair...
 ate fall and early spring is often a time that department members and friends receive notice that they will be honored for exceptional bodies of work and for new discoveries. This newsletter refers to what seems to be a larger number of such events than usual. Considering that our next newsletter will report on the accomplishments of our students, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight several recent cases of our faculty and alumni.
Devens Gust, Tom Moore and Ana Moore were each named Regents' Professors. This is the highest distinction given to faculty within the Arizona higher education system, and recognizes only a very small fraction of the tenured/tenure track faculty state-wide. This well deserved honor comes after more than 35 years of research on artificial photosynthesis that has now evolved into what is an international frenzy of research on bioenergy and bio-inspired solar energy harvesting. Recognized both as a team as well as their individual contributions, this group is frequently held up as a best example of research excellence stemming from synergistic collaborative work.
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Emeritus Regents' Professor Michael O'Keeffe was recently ranked third internationally for the impact of his chemistry research publications for the last ten years (ending 10/31/2010). This ranking is one of Thomas-Reuters Essential Science Indicators and is based upon the total number of citations and the journal impact factors in which those citations appear related to all of his publications. It is worth noting that one of his chief collaborators, Omar Yaghi, UCLA chemistry professor and former faculty member of ASU's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry was ranked second in what was an exceptionally strong field of chemists.
Other recognitions include Regents' Professor C. Austen Angell receiving yet another major award, this time from the Electrochemical Society (Max Bredig award) for his pioneering work on ionic liquids; alumnus Dr. Spencer F. Silver was inducted into the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame for his invention of the Post-It® Notes marketed by 3M Corporation; and, the naming of thermogladius shockii, a newly discovered microorganism called an archaeon, recently proposed to honor ASU's Professor Everett Shock (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the School of Earth and Space Exploration).
There are many other descriptions found in this newsletter about the excellence related to this department and its alumni. After perusing these and the "Updates from our alumni..." section, I invite you to send in notes of your own accomplishments and milestones. We would certainly love to hear of them.
With best regards,
Bill Petuskey |
