Tag Archives: Obituary
In Memoriam: Laszlo Guczi (1932–2012)
Professor László Guczi
László Guczi was born on 23th March 1932 in Szeged, Hungary. As a youngster he was a talented violin player and planned to become a musician. Luckily for the catalysis community he accepted the arguments of his mother and enrolled at the University of Szeged. He graduated with an MSc degree in chemistry in 1959 and started his career in the Isotope Laboratory of the Research Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemistry, Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He was involved in the study of the interaction of alkyl iodides with carbon and red phosphorous using the differential isotope method.
In 1962 Professor Tétényi invited him to work at the Institute of Isotopes, Budapest. This institute was his “headquarter” over 50 years. The catalysis research at the institute was focused on the multiplet theory of Balandin applying isotopes as tracers. In hydrogenolysis of ethane on Ni, Pt and Pd metallic powders the bonding of reactants to the surface was characterized by C13 and C14 labeling as well as
H‑D and H‑T exchange. In this period he spent one year in 1964/65 as post doctoral fellow at the University of Sheffield with Professor J.V. Tyrrell. He received the degree of “Candidate of Science” and “Doctor of Science” from the Hungarian Academy of Science in 1968 and 1976, respectively.
In 1976 he established the Research Group on Catalysis. He developed the “Double Labeling Method” and applied it in the study of the mechanism of the selective hydrogenation of acetylene and butadiene. Together with Professor Tétényi and Professor Paál he received the Hungarian State Prize in 1983 for the development of the principle of the “catalytic system”. The essence of this principle is that the catalyst and the substrates together form the “active sites” acting not as static formations but change continuously during the life of the catalyst. He initiated study of the structure-activity relationship applying highly dispersed supported metal catalysts. At the beginning, Fe, Ru and FeRu bimetallic carbonyl clusters as catalyst precursors were studied in the Fisher-Tropsch reaction. He introduced Mössbauer spectroscopy for in situ characterization of the catalysts. Based on this research he was invited as plenary speaker to the 9th ICC in 1988 to give a talk about cluster catalysis. Later on he extended the research to interfacial chemistry in model catalysts to define the surface species at molecular level and their influence on the activity and selectivity, electron properties of nanoparticles, genesis of bimetallic particles geometrically confined in zeolite cage, role of bimetallic catalysts in deNOx, in CO hydrogenation/oxidation and methane activation to form hydrocarbons. In 1993, he was awarded by Republic’s Order Officer Cross. In the last two decades he turned to the catalysis by gold. He was especially devoted to study of the interaction of gold with promoting oxides applying nanodispersed systems prepared by colloidal methods and model systems prepared by physical methods. For all this research he was eager to equip his laboratory with sophisticated and up-to-date techniques such as XPS, FT-IR, STM and SFG (Sum Frequency Generation). He undoubtedly played a pioneering role in establishing these methodologies in the Hungarian scientific culture.
He was an extraordinary and a highly talented person, who was excellent in building contacts and organizing scientific co-operations worldwide. László was like an ambassador for the Hungarian catalysis community. He received recognition all over the world, which was evidenced by the special issues published in Applied Catalysis A and Topics in Catalysis on the occasions of his 70th and 80th birthday, respectively.
He published over 400 research papers, 12 books and chapters, presented about 430 lectures (out of these 34 plenary or invited ones). He supervised 22 PhD students, some of them from abroad. All of László’s students got post doctoral position at highly respected universities by his help. He was a professor at the University of Szeged and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He was a visiting professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA; The Rijks University, Leiden; University of Pittsburgh, USA; Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, USA; P&M Curie University, France; Schuit Institute of Catalysis, The Netherlands. He served as regional editor for Applied Catalysis in 1980–2006. He was also on the advisory board of Catalysis Today and Reaction Kinetics and Catalysis Letters. He played major role in organizing the 10th ICC in Budapest in 1992 and the 8th International Symposium on Relation between Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Catalysis at Lake Balaton in 1995.
In private life László was a loving husband, father and grandfather. He was an excellent cook who enjoyed entertaining his friends and co-workers in his house at Érd, in the suburb of Budapest. During his life, classical music remained his passion.
We all admired his devotion to the science, his unlimited energy, and enjoyed his sense of humor and charm. We will greatly miss him.
Obituary prepared by Zoltán Schay.
In Memoriam: James R. Katzer (1941–2012)
James Robert Katzer
Jim graduated from Iowa State with a degree in chemical engineering in 1964. He received his Sc.D. from MIT in the same discipline in 1969, and then immediately joined the University of Delaware as an assistant professor of chemical engineering. He was instrumental in founding the university’s Center for Catalytic Science and Technology, attracting more than $800,000 in new research funding in its first year. Together with Professor Bruce Gates, Jim established one of the first collaborative industry –academic centers of its kind. He served as its first director. By 1980, the Center listed 23 companies as members and had a total research budget of $1.8 million. Jim was promoted to full professor in Delaware’s Department of Chemical Engineering in 1978.
In 1981, Jim moved to Mobil Oil Corporation’s Central Research Laboratory in Princeton, NJ as manager of CRL’s catalyst section. He advanced in management at Mobil, holding positions of Division Manger of Process R&D and Vice President of Planning for Research and Engineering. In 1997, he was appointed Vice President for Technology.
With the merger of Mobil and Exxon in 1999, Jim became Manager of Planning and Portfolio Analysis for ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company. He retired from ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company in 2004.
In recognition of his contributions to catalysis and reaction engineering research and commercialization of catalytic processes, Jim was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1998. In 2001 he was awarded the Marston Medal, Iowa State University’s highest honor for a graduate from its College of Engineering. From 2006 to 2010 Jim was member of 4 significant National Research Council studies on Transitions in Transportation, which helped define a strategy for the US’s energy future. He served as a visiting scientist for MIT’s Laboratory for Energy and the Environment from 2004 until 2007, where he was the Executive Director of the MIT Future of Coal study.
At the time of his death, he was an affiliate professor, a member of the advisory board for Iowa State University’s Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and a member of the Technical Advisory Board for the China National Institute for Clean and Low-Carbon Fuels. He was also a member of the Technical Advisory Board for Rive Technology and a member of the Cosmos Club of Washington, D.C.
In his free time, he enjoyed sailing and gardening. Jim is survived by his wife of 32 years, Isabelle (McGregor) Katzer; his mother, Velma Sheller; son, Robert James, MD (Jenni) Katzer, and granddaughter, Autumn Elizabeth Katzer; daughter, Anne Louise Katzer; brothers, Wayne Katzer and Ken (Sharon) Katzer; and sister, JoAnn Katzer.
(Contributed by Thomas Degnan, Roland H. Heck and Jose Santiesteban)
In Memoriam: Paul Burg Weisz (1919–2012)
Paul B. Weisz
Paul emigrated to the U.S. in 1939 from Berlin, interrupting his graduate studies in pre- World War II Germany to attend Auburn University where he completed his B.S. degree in less than one year. Following his graduation, he worked as a researcher at the Bartol Research Foundation of the Franklin Institute in Swarthmore, PA. He later moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where, as an electronics engineer, he participated in the development of LORAN, a long range radio signal-based aid to navigation.
Paul joined Mobil Research and Development Corporation in 1946 as a Research Associate at Mobil’s Paulsboro, NJ research laboratory. He progressed through a number of technical assignments, reaching the position of Senior Scientist, the highest technical position in Mobil in 1961. He managed Mobil’s Exploratory Process Research organization from 1967 until 1969 and its Central Research Laboratory in Princeton, NJ from 1969 through 1982. Paul retired from Mobil in 1984.
Shortly after joining Mobil, Paul became interested in the subject of diffusion and catalysis. This was the foundation for a lifelong interest in porous materials as catalysts and specifically in crystalline hydrous aluminosilicates known as zeolites. Along with several Mobil collaborators, he pioneered the use of natural and synthetic zeolites as catalysts for petroleum refining and petrochemical manufacture. These zeolite catalysts eventually revolutionized many refining processes because they facilitated only certain reactions between molecules having specific dimensions.
In 1960, Paul published a ground-breaking paper co-authored with Vince Frilette, another Mobil scientist. This became the foundation of “shape-selective catalysis” concept, and also one of Paul’s widely cited papers (J. Phys. Chem., 64, 382 (1960)). Processes based on Paul’s concept of shape-selective catalysis were first commercialized in the early 1960’s. Throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s Paul was closely associated with Mobil’s development of new catalytic materials and the processes that were developed around them.
While working at Mobil, Paul took a sabbatical in 1964 to earn his doctoral degree from the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland in 1966. His doctoral research thesis was based on an analysis of the permeation of dyes into fibers. His analysis was the foundation for some of the fundamental laws associated with diffusion of dye molecules into fibers.
One of Paul’s formidable strengths was his ability to communicate complex theories succinctly. He was a constant contributor to the ACS publication ChemTech throughout the 70’s and 80’s where he continued to enlighten and delight readers with his insightful observations of how phenomena like diffusion and kinetics applied to everyday life.
His 1962 article with J. S. Hicks, entitled “The Behavior of Porous Catalyst Particles in View of Internal Mass and Heat Diffusion Effects,” Chem. Eng. Sci. 17, 265 (1962) was selected as one of the 50 most influential articles in Chemical Engineering Science in the publication’s 1995 “Frontiers in Chemical Engineering Science” commemorative edition.
After he retired from Mobil in 1984, he began a third, highly productive career, applying chemical and physical principles to biomedical research first at the University of Pennsylvania an then at Penn State. Working with Dr. Madeleine Jouille at U. Penn he synthesized molecules that mimic some of the healing properties of heparin, but that do not exhibit heparin’s potentially dangerous side effects.
For his numerous industrial research accomplishments and contributions to the science of catalysis, Paul earned many awards including: The E. V. Murphree Award in Industrial Chemistry from the American Chemical Society (1972), The Pioneer Award from the American Institute of Chemists (1974), The Leo Friend Award of the American Chemical Society (1977), the R. H. Wilhelm Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (1978), the Lavosier Medal from the Societe Chemique de France (1983), The Langmuir Distinguished Lecturer Award from the American Chemical Society (1983), the Perkin Medal, from the American Section of the Society of Chemical Industry (1985), The Carothers Award from the American Chemical Society (1987), and the National Medal of Technology from President George H. Bush in 1992. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest honors for an engineer, in 1977 and received an Honorary Doctorate (Sc.D. in technological science) from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in 1980.
Beginning in the early 1950’s Paul’s work at Mobil Oil with collaborators including N. Y. Chen, Vince Frilette, John McCullough, Dwight Prater, Jack Wise, Al Schwartz, Heinz Heineman, Fritz Smith, and others helped set the foundations for zeolite catalysis. His seminal work in the use of natural zeolites as highly shape-selective conversion catalysts set the stage for 50+ years of highly productive process research and revolutionized the refining and petrochemical industries. Paul’s ninety-one issued U.S. patents and more than 180 journal publications cover topics ranging from carbonaceous deposits on catalysts to chemical agents that impact the diffusion of drugs in human cells. Paul Weisz leaves behind a very rich scientific and technical legacy that has greatly impacted our academic and industrial catalysis research communities. His work continues to inspire chemists and chemical engineers working in the area of catalysis and biomaterials.
(Contributed by Thomas Degnan, Jose’ Santiesteban, and Dominick Mazzone)
In Memoriam: Jose M. Parera (1930–2012)
Professor José M. Parera
Professor José M. Parera was born in Argentina in 1930. He graduated as Chemical Engineer at the School of Chemical Engineering, Universidad Nacional del Litoral (UNL) in Santa Fe, Argentina in 1958 as the top-ranked graduate of the Department. He was then granted a National Research Council (CONICET) scholarship to study at Imperial College in London, where he started his work on heterogeneous catalysis.
In his long, fruitful career, he was Founder and Director of Institute of Catalysis and Petrochemistry (INCAPE) of Santa Fe, Argentina and a pioneer throughout Latin America in teaching and research in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. He served as a member of the Editorial Board of several international journals in that field, such as Catalysis Reviews Science and Engineering, Applied Catalysis, Latin American Applied Research and Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology. He received many awards and retired as Honorary Professor of the Universidad Nacional del Litoral.
In Memoriam: Michel Boudart (1924–2012)
Michel Boudart, chemical engineer and expert in catalysis, dies at 87 Professor Boudart taught at Princeton and Berkeley but was best known for his five decades at the heart of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Stanford. His influence shaped catalysis during the post--war period when energy, defense and space industries demanded a deeper understanding of chemical reactions.
By Andrew Myers
Michel Boudart, a professor emeritus of chemical engineering at Stanford University and for five decades one of the world’s leading experts in catalysis, died May 2 at an assisted living center in Palo Alto, California, of multiple organ failure. He was 87.
Boudart was the first William M. Keck, Sr. Professor of Chemical Engineering and one of a very few individuals who were responsible for establishing the reputation of Stanford’s chemical engineering department. The central theme of his research was the catalytic properties of metals, particularly small metal particles.
Boudart essentially brought catalysis, as a science, to chemical engineering in the United States. He was an international ambassador for the field over his entire career.
“Michel Boudart was a world renowned and influential expert in the field of catalysis who brought the Stanford University chemical engineering to prominence and trained several decades of students,” said Andreas Acrivos, a fellow professor at Stanford and now professor emeritus both at Stanford and at the City College of CUNY. “He left a legacy that would be difficult to replicate.”
As a professor, Boudart supervised what was consistently one of the larger groups of PhD candidates in the department, eventually guiding over 70 doctoral candidates to their degrees and mentoring over 100 post--doctoral candidates and visiting scientists. The diaspora of his former students would go on to lead and shape the field.
Le plus de saveur
An avid international traveller, Boudart and his wife, Marina, boasted friends across the world. His office sported Japanese shoji screens, abstract prints, and overstuffed sofas and – occupying one entire wall – an immense periodic table of the elements, printed in Russian, which he read with ease.
In a brief biography, Boudart cited as his personal philosophy a quote from French literary theorist Roland Barthes: “Nul pouvoir, un peu de savoir, un peu de sagesse, et le plus de saveur possible.” Translated loosely, it reads: “No power, a little knowledge, a little wisdom, and as much flavor as possible.” In this context, he will always be remembered as a man of real personal charisma and, one of the last “gentleman scientists.”
Catalysis is the study of chemical processes by which one substance, the catalyst, promotes a reaction between other substances without itself changing.
It is fundamental to the chemical, petroleum and pharmaceutical industries, among many others.
In the post--war era, the United States became the acknowledged leader in the field, mostly owing to advances flowing out of American academia and industry. Boudart was at the center of it all. He was an unabashed champion of catalysis. Though the field is obscure to most lay audiences, catalysis has a profound impact on our world and how we live.
In a published interview, Boudart once laid out his case: Without catalysis, he said, “[o]ur satellites could not be maneuvered, our autos would pour out all the noxious chemicals we’ve spent years guarding against. Our telephone links with the rest of the world would be seriously impeded.”
In 1975, in the wake of the first oil crisis, Boudart and two associates founded Catalytica in Santa Clara, California, which worked on highly complex catalytic problems for petrochemical, chemical, and pharmaceutical firms as well as government agencies. He served as a consultant to numerous well--known companies.
“[Catalytica] started in the catalysis consulting field, a service made clearly necessary by the oil crisis,” Boudart said at the time. “One of the critical areas was in synthetic fuels.”
Guiding force
Accolades and awards were showered on Boudart throughout his life, but particularly in the later years of his career, when the scale of his impact became clear.
In 1985, the University of Utah hosted a five--day symposium on catalysis solely in Boudart’s honor. In 2004, the Journal of Physical Chemistry dedicated an entire issue to Boudart’s legacy.
In their introduction, the journal’s editors wrote, “Michel Boudart has been the guiding force in the field of heterogeneous catalysis for more than forty years. He was known for elegantly stated concepts and his elucidation of catalytic sites, his experimental studies of new catalytic materials, and the activities of [his] many students and collaborators …”
The journal cited his foremost achievement as the quantification of catalysis as rigorous sequences of elementary steps. He focused attention on the need to report reaction rates evaluated under the most rigorous assessment techniques available and he introduced the concept of turnover rate – the number of molecules converted per site per second. He then perfected precise protocols for accurate measurement of reactions.
Boudart’s insistence on rigorous collection and reporting of data proved invaluable in comparing data generated by different laboratories throughout the world and enabled many subsequent advances in the field. His vision, leadership, and wisdom were credited as a major force in bringing catalysis to a point where the design of specific catalytic materials for environmental protection, production of chemicals, and energy conversion processes became possible.
In 2006, the Danish company Haldor Topsøe sponsored The Michel Boudart Award for the Advancement of Catalysis, which is administered jointly by the North American Catalysis Society and the European Federation of Catalysis Societies.
Profound legacy
Michel Boudart was born on 18 June 1924 in Brussels, Belgium. In 1940, as Hitler’s Panzer divisions blitzkrieged his homeland, Boudart was just 16. He had been accepted to the University of Louvain, but the university was closed due to the war.
In order not to be drafted or sent to German factories, Boudart worked as a volunteer stretcher--bearer for the Red Cross. Meanwhile, he had private tutoring to prepare for Louvain. When the university reopened, Boudart graduated in three years at the top of every class, save mathematics, where he was outdone only by his dear friend, the late Professor Rene de Vogelaere of the University of California, Berkeley.
Boudart earned his B.S. at the University of Louvain in 1944 and his M.S. in 1947. He then left Belgium to attend Princeton University, where he took his PhD in chemistry in 1950. “He and his wife Marina were born in Belgium and were knighted by the crown, but America was their adopted home,” said Acrivos. “Their children are thoroughly American.”
After earning his doctorate, Boudart held faculty positions at Princeton until 1961 and, for three years, at Berkeley, before joining the Stanford faculty in 1964. He was Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Stanford from 1975 to 1978. He also held visiting professorships at the Universities of Louvain, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, and Paris. He became professor emeritus in 1994.
Boudart authored or coauthored over 280 journal articles and served on the editorial boards of at least ten journals. His book, Kinetics of Chemical Processes, is a standard reference and was translated into Japanese, Spanish, and French. His book, Kinetics of Heterogeneous Catalytic Processes, written with G. Djega--Mariadassou, was published in French in 1982 and translated to English in 1984. He was coeditor-- in--chief of Catalysis Science and Engineering, a series of twelve volumes.
Boudart was recipient of numerous awards, among them the Wilhelm Award in Chemical Reaction Engineering from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (1974), the Kendall Award (1977) and the Murphee Award (1985) from the American Chemical Society, and the Chemical Pioneer Award (1991) of the American Institute of Chemists.
His election to both the National Academy of Science and the National Academy of Engineering were reflections of Boudart’s leadership and his scientific gravitas. He was likewise a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the California Academy of Sciences. He was a foreign member of the Academia Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux--Arts de Belgique and its Royal Belgian Academy Council for Applied Sciences.
Boudart received honorary doctorates from the University of Liege, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Ghent, and the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine.
He held four patents
Boudart is survived by a daughter, Iris Harris, of Whittier, Calif.; three sons, Marc, of Aptos, Calif.; Baudouin, of Atherton, Calif; and Philip, of Palo Alto; and grandchildren Marina and Clint Harris; and Jesse, Louise, and Noella Boudart. His wife, Marina d’Haese Boudart, died in 2009. A second daughter, Dominique, died in childhood.
Download PDF document: Michel Boudart Obituary
In Memoriam: Edmond I. Ko (1952–2012)
Edmond Ko
Besides being the co-author of over 100 publications and co-inventor of one U.S. patent in the area of surface science and catalysis, Professor Ko was an accomplished educator. He received nine teaching awards in his career, including the William H. and Frances S. Ryan Teaching Award at Carnegie Mellon, the Chemical Manufacturers Association National Catalyst Award, the W. M. Keck Foundation Engineering Teaching Excellence Award, the W. E. Wickenden Award of the American Society for Engineering Education, and the School of Engineering Teaching Award at HKUST.
Professor Ko had nine years of academic administrative experience, with the first two at Carnegie Mellon and the last seven at CityU. As the key person charged to improve education at these two institutions, he directed activities in student recruitment and admissions, student development, student residence, curriculum design, quality assurance, and faculty development. He was particularly interested in developing an outcome-based approach to enhance student learning.
Serving as Chairman of the Curriculum Development Council and a member of the Quality Assurance Council of the University Grants Committee, Education Commission, and Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications of the HKSAR Government, Professor Ko was deeply involved in the formulation and implementation of education policies in Hong Kong at all levels. He was also a council member of the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications and Hong Kong Institute of Education.
As someone who has spent about half of his life living and working in the US and the other half in Hong Kong, Professor Ko was keenly aware of the importance of being able to work comfortably and effectively across cultures. He created many cross-cultural learning experiences for CityU and HKUST students, including conducting workshops on intercultural communication himself. He also published 7 books and numerous articles on a wide range of educational issues in both English and Chinese since returning to Hong Kong in 1998.
Source: http://chtl.hkbu.edu.hk/sources/ProfKoBio.pdf
In Memoriam: Jeffrey S. Beck (1962–2012)
Jeffrey Scott Beck
Jeff was born on October 23, 1962 to Irwin and Leila Beck in Brooklyn, New York. He was a vibrant ball of fire with the dedication and intellect to make an ever lasting impact in our society. He earned his doctorate in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1989, true to his high school prediction. Jeff was a creative and prolific inventor, an inspirational leader, a devoted husband and friend, and a renowned scientist and engineer in his field. The loves of his life were his wife Lisa and sister Shari, game-changing innovation, art collection, and his dogs Pharaoh and Monty.
Jeff’s professional career began at Mobil’s Central Research Laboratory, immediately following his Ph. D. Throughout his career, Jeff made outstanding contributions to the discovery and commercialization of novel catalysts and processes for the production of key petrochemicals and clean fuels. His colleagues describe Jeff as an inspirational visionary who had the uncanny ability to see where the puck was going to be. His groundbreaking research on “liquid-crystal templating” led to the discovery of an entirely new class of tunable mesoporous materials, M41S, with pore sizes in the range of 16 to 100 Å. This discovery is recognized as a major innovation in the scientific community and has spawned a new field of materials chemistry. Technologies based on Jeff’s innovative and practical inventions also revolutionized the production of key petrochemicals, including para-xylene (used in the production of polyester fiber and PET plastics), via advanced catalysts and processes. Jeff was recognized for his excellence in catalysis and materials with numerous national and international awards, including the National Academy of Engineering (one of the highest professional distinctions accorded an engineer), the North American Catalysis Society’s Houdry Award (accorded to the most significant contributor to industrial catalysis), the American Chemical Society’s Heroes of Chemistry Award, and the International Zeolite Association’s Breck Award (accorded to the most significant advance in the field of micro-and meso-porous materials). He was author of nearly 75 US patents, published prolifically, and frequently delivered invited lectures at acclaimed universities and conferences worldwide. Jeff left an indelible mark not only in research, where he led ExxonMobil’s prestigious Corporate Strategic Research, but also in several assignments in the business, including Technical Manager at the Baytown Refinery, and Polyethylene Global Marketing Manager.
Though taken from this world quite too soon, Jeff’s loved ones can find comfort in knowing that he lived his life fully and the way he wanted. He demanded excellence, did not sit still for mediocrity, and inspired all who were fortunate enough to come to know him. Jeff found his happiest moments spending time with his beloved wife Lisa, and his dogs Pharaoh and Monty. His family, friends, and colleagues will remember him as a remarkable individual. He has taken in his early journey a part of each of us. We feel blessed to have had him with us. Jeff is survived by his wife Lisa, parents Irwin and Leila, sister Shari, and brother Richard.
Please share sympathies, memories, and condolences online at www.mem.com.
In lieu of flowers, Lisa has requested that donations be made to Best Friends Animal Society, www.bestfriends.org, or any other animal rescue organization.
In Memoriam: D. Wayne Goodman (1945–2012)
Professor D. Wayne Goodman
Wayne received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 1975 at the University of Texas, Austin, under the supervision of M.J.S. Dewar, where his research included some of the earliest measurements and full analysis of the photoelectron spectra of inorganic molecules. After completing his Ph.D., Wayne won a NATO fellowship, and then became an NRC Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Standards near Washington, DC. At the “Bureau” (now NIST), he worked under the supervision of two pioneers in the field of surface science, Ted Madey and John Yates. Among several important accomplishments during his tenure there, Wayne produced landmark publications on the metal-catalyzed CO methanation reaction. Using well-defined single crystal model catalysts of Ni and Ru and a novel, UHV-attached ‘high’ pressure catalytic reactor, his work provided conclusive evidence that CO methanation is a structure insensitive reaction.
Wayne’s scientific career took off in the 1980s; these were highly productive years that established him as a leading figure in surface science and heterogeneous catalysis. At Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM, he identified “long-range” effects of some surface modifiers giving new perspectives on phenomena associated with poisoning and promotion of catalytic reactions. Wayne also initiated research efforts focused on the hydrogenolysis of alkanes, cyclohexane dehydrogenation, methanol synthesis, CO oxidation, and NO reduction. His fundamental studies continued to explore links between surface structure and surface reactivity, helping to establish an approach followed by many research groups in subsequent years.
Wayne took a faculty position in the Department of Chemistry at Texas A&M University in 1988, where he remained, holding the Robert A. Welch Foundation Chair at the time of his death. The academic environment of Texas A&M added a new dimension to Wayne’s life. It was a joy for him to teach general chemistry to undergraduates, and Prof. Goodman’s lectures became very popular among the students. Within a few short years, Wayne was also able to establish one of the best laboratories for surface science in the United States. In the early 1990s, following work he initiated at Sandia, his group at A&M performed systematic studies of the physical and chemical properties of bimetallic surfaces and strained metal overlayers. Clear correlations were found between the electronic perturbations induced by bimetallic bonding and variations in the chemical and catalytic activity of the metals. After making many impactful discoveries in this area, Wayne shifted his attention to the chemistry of oxide surfaces and the interaction of well-defined metal nanoparticles with oxide supports, where he elucidated key aspects of particle size effects in catalysis. His group developed models of metal/oxide interfaces that have become valuable tools for imaging and imagining the structure of supported heterogeneous catalysts. In the late 1990s, his studies of catalysis by supported Au nanoparticles received wide recognition, with many papers, citations and invited lectures all over the world. He also led elegant kinetic and spectroscopic studies of vinyl acetate synthesis over metal alloys, unraveling key phenomena for the preparation of oxygenates.
Wayne published over 500 papers in surface science and heterogeneous catalysis, with nearly 24,000 citations and an h‑index of 76. His work in these areas over the last 30 years has helped to transform catalysis from a primarily applications-oriented discipline to a highly sophisticated scientific enterprise. For these scientific accomplishments, Wayne received numerous awards and honors. From the American Chemical Society, he received the Ipatieff Prize in catalysis (1983), the Kendall Award in Colloid and Surface Chemistry (1993), the Arthur W. Adamson Award for Distinguished Service in Advancement of Surface Chemistry (2002), and the Gabor A. Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis (2005). Wayne was a Robert Burwell Lecturer for the North American Catalysis Society (1997), and has been elected as a fellow of the American Chemical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Institute of Physics, and the American Vacuum Society. He served as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Catalysis, and as a member of the Editorial Boards of Surface Science, Applied Surface Science, Langmuir, Catalysis Letters, Journal of Molecular Catalysis A, Chemical Physics Letters and the Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter. He also mentored a large number of graduate students and postdocs.
Wayne is survived by his lovely and gracious wife of 44 years, Sandy, of College Station, TX; his son, Jac Goodman, son-in-law, Steven Teiler, grandson Eitan Teiler Goodman of Washington, D.C.; his father, Grady Goodman; a brother, Garon Goodman; and a sister, Marcalyn Price.
On a personal note, we both attest to Wayne’s infectious enthusiasm for science and life, his natural tendency to forge deep friendships with almost everyone he knew, his incredible sense of humor, and his deep commitment to his family, friends and institutions. His successful efforts to reveal some of “Mother Nature’s” closely guarded secrets were an inspiration to all who knew him. As importantly, Wayne was a friend to all, who could always be counted on to entertain, enlighten, support, and debate. Along with another friend and colleague, Prof. Charles Mims (University of Toronto), we were honored to dedicate our recent joint publication to Wayne in a special issue of the Journal of Physical Chemistry C (Vol. 114, No. 40, 2010) published in honor of his 65th birthday. Our acknowledgment to Wayne in our paper was as follows: “We thank Wayne Goodman for his scientific inspiration, mentoring, and collaboration, and for untold number of good times that defy description.” We will greatly miss our friend and mentor. We know this same sentiment will be shared by a large fraction of the membership of the NACS.
Wayne, thank you for all you did for us, old buddy!
Charlie Campbell (Department of Chemistry, University of Washington)
Chuck Peden (Institute for Integrated Catalysis, Pacific Northwest National Laboratories)
Memorial contributions may be made to Hospice Brazos Valley at www.hospicebrazosvalley.org. Cards, letters and other written forms of condolences also may be addressed to the Goodman Family in care of the Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843–3255.
Note: Some of the above material was adapted from the Preface to the special issue of the Journal of Physical Chemistry C (Vol. 114, No. 40, 2010) published in honor of Wayne Goodman’s 65th birthday. The Preface was authored by Michael Henderson, Chuck Peden, Jose Rodriguez, Janos Szanyi, John Yates, and Francisco Zaera.
In Memoriam: Jean-Claude Volta (1946–2011)
Jean-Claude Volta was born in Givors near Lyon, France on 3rd March 1946 and died in Lyon on 18th June 2011. He received a chemical engineer degree at the ‘‘Ecole Supérieure de Chimie Industrielle de Lyon’’ ESCIL, in 1968 and his ‘‘Doctorat ès Sciences’’ in 1973 from the University of Lyon.
His scientific career was almost entirely at the “Institut de Recherches sur la Catalyse” IRC, CNRS in Villeurbanne (Lyon), now IRCELYON. His passion for Brazil was quite intense. He collaborated in particular with Paolo Gustavo Pries de Oliveria and Lucia Appel from INT (Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia) in Rio de Janeiro and worked there for one year.
He retired in March 2006 as “Directeur de Recherche au CNRS”, after being at the head of the Oxide group. Everyone will remember him as an enthusiastic and brilliant scientist who contributed enormously to the scientific and social life of the Institute over 30 years.
He was awarded the annual award by the Catalysis division of the French Chemical Society in1984 for his major contribution in ‘‘structure sensitivity’’ of metallic oxides for catalytic selective oxidation of hydrocarbons. His case study was MoO3 single crystals.
He has more than 150 publications and patents in the field of oxidation catalysis in which he is world famous. His contribution to VPO catalysts for butane oxidation to maleic anhydride was important and outstanding. He has developed the spin echo mapping technique in MAS-NMR with Dr. Alain Tuel (IRCELYON), pioneered in situ/Operando Raman studies with analysis of reactants and products by GC on line with Professor Ollier at Ecole Centrale de Lyon and HR-TEM with Professor Chris Kiely (University of Liverpool, UK, now at Lehigh University, USA).
Jean-Claude was a founding member of the European CONCORDE (CO-ordination of Nanostructured Catalytic Oxides Research and Development) network and played a vital role in discussions leading to its formation. A special issue of the Journal Applied Catalysis A was organized by his friends and colleagues who wanted to express their recognition to Jean-Claude Volta on the occasion of his retirement and to celebrate his contribution to the field of structure sensitivity and selective oxidation in heterogeneous catalysis.
This note is essentially based on the preface of this special issue.
His friends
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Applied Catalysis A: General 325 (2007) 193