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Distinguished Alumni Lecturers

Distinguished Alumni Lecturers
A former student from the Department of Chemistry at UM-St. Louis delivers this annual lecture, which is followed by a reception. This forms part of the regular departmental seminar program and is typically; scheduled for the first Monday in May as the final seminar of the academic year. The lecture follows presentation of the Annual Departmental Awards.

#21 2008

Dr. Timothy T. Wenzel (1978).
Tim is a Research Leader at Dow Chemical Co. in Midland MI. He received a BS in chemistry here in 1978 and then completed a Ph.D degree at Cornell University with Professor Mel Goldstein followed by postdoctoral work with Professor Robert Bergman at UC-Berkeley. He spent several years at Union Carbide in Charleston WV which became a subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Co. in 1999. His recent research has involved novel approaches to olefin polymerization referred to in the literature as "chain shuttling polymerization". Some of his work was published recently in Science magazine and featured in Chemistry and Engineering News.

#20 2007

Joseph P. Bono, (1969)
Joseph P. Bono received a B S in chemistry in 1969 and an MA in Political Science, also from UM- St. Louis in 1979. He was drafted into the service like many of the male students of the late 60s and early 70s. Once he had dealt with the disruption of his early career plans, he began what has become a very distinguished career in forensic science. After spending some time in an industrial laboratory he joined the St. Louis County Police Department Laboratory 1974-1981 where he began as a criminalist and to become Laboratory Director. He spent 7 years in Regional Naval Investigative Service Forensic Laboratories; in Naples, Italy, 1981-1984, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii 1984-1986, and San Diego, 1986-1988. Then he spent about 18 years, from 1988 – 2006 with the Drug Enforcement Administration in the Washington DC/Virginia area in various supervisory positions. Since July 2006 he has been with the United States Secret Service, Forensic Services Division in Washington, DC as Laboratory Director. He visited as a liaison or speaker with the DEA Venezuela, Guyana, Ecuador, Austria, Italy, France, Germany, Sweden, Oman, Pakistan, Turkey, Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China. With the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) he visited Colombia, Chile and Argentina. Joe is very active in the AAFS. For 2006-07 he was AAFS Vice President and had served previously as secretary. Among many special accomplishments are the American Academy of Forensic Sciences Criminalistics Section Mary Cowan Distinguished Service Award for 2006, a Gubernatorial appointment to the Commonwealth of Virginia Scientific Advisory Committee, membership of the Commonwealth of Virginia Forensic Science Board and Department of Justice/Drug Enforcement Administration Awards 1995, 1998, 2001, 2005.

#19 2006

Dr. Alicia M. Beatty, (1989)
 Alicia M. Beatty received a B.S. in chemistry in 1989 from the University of Missouri - St. Louis, being selected as the Outstanding Senior Chemistry Major, and a Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis in 1994, where she studied organometallic synthetic chemistry. After a post-doctoral appointment as the departmental small molecule X-ray crystallographer at her graduate institution, she moved to Kansas State University to continue work in crystallography and to conduct research in supramolecular chemistry and crystal engineering. From 2000 until joining the faculty at Mississippi State in 2003, she was a Research Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame. She is now an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Mississippi State University.

#18 2005

Dr. Rajiv M. Banavali, (Ph.D, 1985)
Rajiv received his Ph.D degree here in 1985 under the direction of Bob Murray. He was the last postdoctoral fellow to work with Professor Paul Bartlett at Texas Christian University. He began his career with Rohm and Haas in Houston in 1987 as a process chemist. In 1992 he became the Manager of the R&D for Primene amines. In 2000, he took on the additional responsibilities for the Dyes and Markers businesses and moved to Philadelphia with the company in 2001. Following year he became the global R&D director for the Inorganic Specialties business in addition to his previous responsibilities. In 2004, he was named the Global research manager for Organic Specialties and Ion Exchange resin catalysis. Rajiv has been awarded 10 patents and is an author of over 25 publications. Rajiv met his wife Marysusan when she was a student here and taking Chemistry classes. Marysusan is a graduate of the School of Education at UM-St. Louis.

#17 2004

Jean Huhmann-Vincent (BA 1992; Ph.D 1996)
Jean Huhmann-Vincent (BA 1992) received a Ph.D degree in inorganic chemistry from UM-St. Louis in August 1996. Her dissertation work in Dr. Joyce Corey's group focused on organometallic catalysts and silicon polymer synthesis. Jean was awarded a Director's Postdoctoral Fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and spent her tenure there investigating inorganic complexes of hydrogen, silanes and germanes. In 1999, Jean accepted a position at Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., where she has worked on a wide range of projects, including the pilot scale production of oxygen adsorbents, new molecule synthesis for semiconductor applications, and new product development for polyurethane foam additives. Jean has been awarded 2 patents and is an author on over 20 journal publications. During undergraduate studies in chemistry at UM-St. Louis she received both the American Chemical Society Outstanding Junior Award and the Alan F Berndt Outstanding Senior Award. She lives in Bethlehem, PA with her husband John and their son Derrick.

#16 2003

Mr. Jerry Ronecker, (BS 1982)
Jerry was the top student in his class in 1982 and received the American Institute of Chemists Award. After graduation he worked at Monsanto spending five years in environmental research in the agricultural company. He then went to Law School at Saint Louis University, graduating in 1990. He is now an attorney practicing in "Environmental Toxic Tort Law and Product Liability". He is a partner in the Saint Louis law firm, Husch, Ampersand, Eppenberger. He has been with the firm since September 1990.

#15 2002

Dr. Douglas G. Nuelle (BS 1969)
Doug; graduated with honors from Washington University School of Medicine, served a surgical internship at Washington University, followed by a two-year stint in the US Navy and a residency at the Willis C. Campbell Clinic in Memphis, TN., prior to establishing a successful 20-year practice in Port Charlotte, Florida, where he was President of Charlotte Orthopedic Clinic. His career includes being the first in the world to perform arthroscopic surgery of the Temporal Mandibular Joint (TMJ). He also holds patents on devices relating to TMJ treatment and developed another device to assist surgeons in quantifying the soft tissue tension during total knee anthroplasty.  He conducts lectures on joint replacement and TMJ. In January 2000 he moved to the mountains of North Georgia where he is the only orthopedic surgeon without a radius of 30 miles. He is currently Chief of Orthopedics at the Fannin Regional Hospital in Blue Ridge, Georgia.

#14 2001

Mr. Ken Owens (BS 1980)
Ken was appointed Scientific Glassblower in the Chemistry Department at UMSL in 1997. This followed a career as a Chemist with Petrolite, an Engineer at McDonnell-Douglas, and a Consultant to the U.S. Army. He is active in the American Scientific Glassblowers Society (ASGS) and received the society's Memorial Award in 1999, recognizing him as the Outstanding Junior Member. In 2000, he was elected Vice Chair of the Midwest Section of the ASGS. As Chair of the society's Questions and Answers Committee he fields technical questions and publishes a quarterly report in their journal FUSION.

#13 2000

Dr. Deborah F. Bergstrom (BS 1980)
Deborah completed her Ph.D. with Paul Rasmussen at the University of Michigan prior to joining Dow-Corning Company, where she Global Research Leader.  She chaired the ACS Midland Section in 1999.

#12 1999

Dr. Michael D. Ennis (BS 1978)
Mike went west to Caltech to complete his Ph.D. degree with David Evans prior  to joining the staff at Pharmacia & UpJohn in Kalamazoo, MI where he is now Senior Scientist.

#11 1998

Dr. Karl Seper (BS 1982)
Karl completed his Ph.D. degree with John Welch at SUNY-Alban and then did  postdoctoral work at the Free University of Berlin n Germany before joining  Occidental Petroleum. He is now a Project Development Specialist at the  Technology Center of the Occidental Chemical Corporation, Grand Island, NY.

#10 1997

Dr. Dawn L. Shiang (BA 1983, Ph.D. 1988)
Dawn did postdoctoral work at Penn State University with Gordon Hamilton  following her Ph.D. degree at UM-St. Louis with Professor Murray and before joining  the staff at Dow Chemical Company in Midland MI. She has held several positions  at Dow and was recently assigned to a management track that h her to  change from the Agricultural Division to Corporate R&D as a Resource Leader  over the New Product & Math Modeling discipline.

#9 1996

Robert L. Lamberg, MD (BS 1972)
Bob completed his MD at Washington University School of Medicine. He then did  his residency in ophthalmology at UCLA Medical S and now is President of  Clarkson Eye Care, an operation with facilities in Clayton, Ellisville and  four other locations in the St. Louis area. He has pioneered the use of laser surgery in his practice.

#8 1995

Dr. Janet Braddock-Wilking (BA 1985)
Janet completed a Ph.D. degree at Washington University in St. Louis in  organosilicon chemistry with Professor Peter Gasp e then did postdoctoral  research with Andrew Barron at Harvard University returning to St. Louis  to work at Mallinckrodt Inc. in the radiopharmaceutical chemistry In 1993  she became Director of the NMR Facility at UM-St. where she maintains an  active and successful research program in the study of transition metal-silane  complexes and NMR spectroscopy.

#7 1994

Professor C. Michael Drain (BS 1982)
Mike received his Ph.D. from Tufts University in the laboratory of Barry B. Corden, and did postdoctoral work with David Mauzerall at the Rockefeller  University in the Department of Biochemistry, Structural Biology and Chemistry.  The following two years he was a guest researcher in the laboratory of Nobel  Laureate Jean-Marie Lehn at the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France.  Afterwards he spent two years as a research in the Holten/Kirmaier  laboratory at Washington University and is now Assistant Professor of Chemistry  at Hunter College in New York City. He received the Galvani Prize of the  Bioelectrochemical Society in 1989.

#6 1993

Dr. William L. Neuman (Ph.D. 1987)
Bill completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Missouri  Columbia. Following his dissertation research with Mike Sworin, he joined the  staff at Mallinckrodt where he spent several years working the area of  radiopharmaceutical chemistry. He is now a Team Lea the Corporate Research  Department at Monsanto and also teaches part-time at UM-St. Louis.

#5 1992

Professor Susan A. Jansen-Varnum (BS 1982, Ph.D. 1986)
Sue is Associate Professor of Chemistry at Temple University prior to  joining the faculty at Temple; she did postdoctoral arch with Nobel Laureate  Roald Hoffman and her dissertation research with Tom Jones at UM-St. Louis.

#4 1991

Dr. Gary S. Jacob (BS 1969)
Gary was Director of Glycosciences and Science Fellow a Monsanto for  many years. In 1998 he was appointed Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific  Officer at LgX Corporation in Summit NJ. Gary re his Ph.D. degree at the  University of Wisconsin and did postdoctoral research at the IBM Watson Research  Center.

#3 1990

Mr. Harold R. Messler (BS 1970)
Harold is a very well known criminalist and he lectures widely on the  subject. For many years he has been Director City of St. Louis Crime  Laboratory. During his years in this position as trained several other  UM-St. Louis chemistry graduates who have go to successful careers in  criminology and other areas. Harold won an UM-St. Louis Distinguished Alumni  Award in 1991.

#2 1989

Dr. David Henton (BS 1967)
Following his BS degree in the first graduating class at UM-St. Louis, David  went to the University of Kansas and obtained Ph.D. degree in organic  chemistry with Professor Carlson. At the time presented the Distinguished  Alumni Lecture he was Senior Scientist in the Designed Thermoplastics Research  Laboratory at the Dow Chemical Company in Midland, MI.

#1 1988

Professor Sanford A. Asher (BA 1971)
Dr. Asher did all of his undergraduate chemistry in the evening at UM-St.  Louis while holding a full-time job at a chemical company. After  graduation he went to the University of California-Berkeley where he did his  Ph.D. degree. This was followed by postdoctoral r h at Harvard University.  Sandy joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in 1980 and is now  Professor of Chemistry there.