The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology is delighted to announce the establishment of a new endowed named lecture series in the department. This lecture series is called the Frank J. Welcher lectureship. Dr. Frank J. Welcher, was a Professor of Chemistry at IUPUI from 1932-1978.
He served as the department chair before IUPUI was officially established! He was an author, teacher, and a world-wide conference speaker; he published a multivolume set on Organic Analytical Reagents and Standard Methods of Chemical Analysis, still available on Amazon. In 1978, the F. J. Welcher Symposium on Analytical Chemistry was organized in his honor; and in 1990, Purdue University bestowed on him the Honorary DSc Degree. The City of Indianapolis also proclaimed a day as Frank J. Welcher Day. After retirement, he published a two-volume set Colburn’s Brigade, an account of his grandfather’s service in the Civil War.
The faculty collectively selected Professor Geraldine Richmond, the Presidential Chair in Science and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oregon, as the first speaker. Professor Richmond will deliver her lecture in late November, likely on the 21st. Professor Richmond earned her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research is at the interface of chemistry and physics and on complex surfaces that are relevant to energy production, environmental remediation, and atmospheric chemistry. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and have received many awards including the Priestley Medal of the American Chemical Society.
We are grateful to Professor Erwin Boschmann, who endowed this lecture series. Professors Boschmann and Welcher served the department together.
By: Partha Basu