Professor Honored by the American Chemical Society

Galen D. Stucky, a professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and the Materials Department, and a member of the Biomolecular Science and Engineering faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has won the American Chemical Society award in the Chemistry of Materials sponsored by E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. The award will be presented during the 223rd national meeting of the ACS to be held in Orlando, Fla., this April.

The award was established by DuPont in 1988 to encourage creative work in the chemistry of materials and to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the commercialization of nylon and the discovery of Teflon. According to the ACS, "this accomplishment reflects greatly upon Professor Stucky's and UCSB's commitment to the advancement of chemistry and the chemical sciences." The award consists of $5,000, a certificate, and travel expenses to the meeting at which the award will be presented.

Stucky received his Ph.D. in 1962 from Iowa State University. After postdoctoral study at MIT, he held positions at the University of Illinois, Sandia National Laboratory and DuPont Central Research and Development Department before joining the chemistry faculty in 1985. Stucky has been active in the American Chemical Society, serving as associate editor of the Journal of Inorganic Chemistry and as chairman of the Inorganic Division.

His overall research goal is to make composite material systems, with component function and structure designed and created on multiple length scales, using a molecular approach. The materials, containing organic and inorganic components, are synthesized during processing into desired shapes and forms such as porous fibers, thin films or optical waveguides.

This means they can be used for many applications, from low dielectric coatings for computer chips to optical sensors and microarray lasers to separation membranes and catalytic supports.

"Since we can make the pores as large as any protein," said Stucky, "we can separate or selectively package biomolecules, such as proteins, or DNA."

Note: Stucky can be reached by e-mail at stucky@chem.ucsb.edu or by phone at 805-893-4782.