The American Chemical Society – Greater Houston Section (ACS-GHS) Local Section Award winner, Steven Baldelli, was honored at an award ceremony on November 18, 2010 at the Hilton Hotel on the University of Houston campus. The award serves to provide recognition for meritorious contributions to the welfare and distinction of the Section, as demonstrated by contributions to education, research, Sectional service or community service. Professor Baldelli has distinguished himself nationally and internationally as an insightful and creative scientist. Receiving this award highlights his research contributions and documents his emergence as a leader and innovator in the field of surface chemistry.
Professor Baldelli earned his B.S. in Chemistry from Framingham State College in 1992 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Tufts University in 1998 under the direction of Professor Mary Jane Shultz. His research in surface chemistry began at Tufts, where he developed surface spectroscopy of electrolytic solutions. He later garnered a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley with Professor Gabor Somorjai and Dr. Phil Ross of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he developed electrochemical sum frequency generation spectroscopy.
In 2001, Professor Baldelli joined the faculty at the University of Houston as an Assistant Professor. His outstanding work and international reputation led to a prestigious Research Corporation Young Investigator Award in 2002 and an appointment as a Visiting Professor at The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm – an honor rarely afforded any Assistant Professor of Chemistry. Professor Baldelli's influential work on the surface chemistry and electrochemistry of room-temperature ionic liquids has created quite a stir in the scientific community. These experiments shed substantial insight into the nature of the ionic liquid-charged metal interface for these unique materials.
Professor Baldelli also recently co-authored a book chapter on Surface Spectroscopy in Electrochemistry. More recently, Professor Baldelli has made significant developments in the spectroscopic imaging of surfaces. His work in this area has focused on the use of sum frequency generation asan imaging tool to obtain spatially resolved surface spectra, thus being able to locate molecules on the surface based on their unique vibrational spectrum. This "label-free" microscopy is finding widespread use as a new tool in materials characterization. The technique is also highly interdisciplinary, lying at the intersection of condensed matter physics and materials engineering. The cross-disciplinary nature of Professor Baldelli’s research has led to a number of fruitful collaborations around the world.
The attendees at the banquet dinner represented both local academia and industry: University of Houston, University of St. Thomas, Houston Community College, M.D. Anderson, NanoComposites, Inc, National Oilwell Varco, ChevronTexaco and Rational Systems.
ACS-GHS Chair, Kerry Spilker, Steven Baldelli, Local Section Award Recipient and his wife.
The highlight of the evening was Steven’s acceptance whereby he treated his audience to his lecture on "Surface Chemistry of Energy Systems".
Dr. Ognjen Miljanić has the distinction of receiving the first Younger Chemist of the Year Award of the Greater Houston Section of the American Chemical Society at the annual Local Section Awards fall banquet on UH Campus. Dr. Miljanić is the youngest faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Houston (UH). His research interests lie at the interface of organic supramolecular chemistry and materials science. His nomination was based on his outstanding record of accomplishment as a graduate student and postdoctoral researcher, and the enthusiastic support of his research mentors. Dr. Miljanić joined the UH faculty in September 2008. He currently holds the position of Assistant Professor of Chemistry. Prior to joining the UH faculty, Dr. Miljanić earned his Ph.D. from the University of California.
YCC Award winner, Dr. Miljanic, Award Mamie Moy, Dr. Gina Butuc, Marchelle Committee Chair, Dr. Dolores Aquino, and Roberson (Project Seed), and Dr. Diana Martin Dr. Karolina Osowska
In the crowd were colleagues and friends of Drs. Baldelli and Dr. Miljanic, previous award winner Dr. John McMurray, as well as Executive Board Members and members of the ACS-GHS.
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Dr. James F. Stevens, an employee of Chevron and ACS-GHS member, received the 2010 American Chemical Society Southwest Regional Industrial Innovation Award, for his outstanding innovative work in the area of industrial chemistry. Dr. Stevens is a Consulting Research Scientist assigned to the Chevron/Weyerhaeuser biofuels joint venture, Catchlight Energy, LLC. He earned his baccalaureate (1973) and doctoral (1977) degrees in chemistry at Rice University while working for 1996 Nobel Laureate Robert Curl in the area of molecular structural determination. His current role includes leading a research team in the area of biofuels conversion. He has worked in Chevron’s R&D organization since 1981 in several R&D management and technical positions. In addition to biofuels R&D he has worked in distributed hydrogen production, environmental technology, and enhanced oil recovery. He has shared authorship of numerous patents and publications including the DOE/NSF sponsored report, "Breaking the Chemical and Engineering Barriers to Lignocellulosic Biofuels". He is an inventor on eight U.S. patents and numerous foreign patents. He is an inventor on seventeen active U.S. patent applications. Dr. Stevens presented his work at the Southwest Regional Meeting in New Orleans in December, 2010.
James F. Stevens
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Each year the Greater Houston Section hold a High School Awards Banquet that recognizes our Outstanding Teacher of the Year, our scholarship recipients, and Houston Science Fair Winners. Lynn Millikan was awarded the 2010 Thomas Aczel award for Excellence in Chemical Education for 25 years of teaching excellence.