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PEOPLE ACS mentoring award to Isiah Warner When Louisiana State University’s (LSU) chancellor asked Isiah Warner last year to head a program that would encourage underrepresented minority students to earn science and engineering degrees, the chemistry professor didn’t want to do it full time. He preferred to spend most of his teaching hours in the laboratory with his students. “I refuse to not teach courses,” he says. “I just can’t seem to give up my contact with students.” His decision to put his students on his priority list has paid off in more ways than one. On August 19, Warner was awarded the 2003 ACS Award for Encouraging Disadvantaged Students into Careers in the Chemical Sciences during the ACS national meeting in Boston. The award, sponsored by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, is given to those who have made strides in fostering students, especially minority or economically disadvantaged students, in chemistry. Recipients receive $5,000, and their academic institution receives a $10,000 grant. Warner’s other accolades include the Award for Achievements in Analytical Chemistry and the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. In 2001, LSU’s chancellor restructured the university’s Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI) and appointed Warner as vice chancellor to oversee the office’s program. Among the initiatives was an increase in the number of underrepresented minority students who complete undergraduate degrees in the sciences and engineering. LSU currently graduates the largest number of AfricanAmerican chemistry doctorates in the United States, say university officials. Since 1999, 21 African-American students have earned their doctorates in chemistry. Connie Stelly, executive director of the Ronald McNair Program, a tutoring 518 A
program at LSU named after America’s second black astronaut, who died in the 1986 Challenger explosion, says Warner’s mentoring skills have helped recruit many minority students into chemistry at LSU. “He wants to give back what someone gave him,” says Stelly, who is also OSI’s executive assistant. Raised in a small Louisiana agricultural town, Warner is mindful of obstacles he faced during his education in the 1950s. The oldest of three siblings, he worked in cotton fields to help his parents and was the first in his immediate family to graduate from high school. Back then, schools were segregated, and LSU didn’t accept black students. Warner later received his bachelor’s degree at Southern University, a historically black university, and his doctorate from the University of Washington. Today, Warner says it’s a pleasure to receive recognition from his peers for the mentoring and teaching he loves to do. a —Cheryl M. Harris
L. J. Cline Love (1940–2002) L. J. Cline Love, 61, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Seton Hall University, died on July 10 in Summit, N.J., after a long illness. Cline Love joined the Seton Hall faculty in September 1972 and advanced
to the rank of professor in just 10 years. Earlier, she had been an assistant professor at Michigan State University. She received an associate’s degree from Christian College in Missouri and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Missouri. Cline Love earned her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois in 1969 and subsequently completed a program of postdoctoral research at the University of Florida. Over the course of an exceptional career in the classroom and the laboratory, “L. J.” made significant contributions to analytical chemistry in the areas of molecular fluorescence and phosphorescence, chemical instrumentation and automation, applications of micellar systems and cyclodextrin inclusion complexes to LC, and the clinical analysis of body fluids. Especially noteworthy were her efforts to advance and support the work of women in science. During her career at Seton Hall, she directed the doctoral research of more than 20 Ph.D. recipients. In announcing her passing to the Seton Hall community, University President Monsignor Robert Sheeran said, “Linda’s research interests—subjects like ‘chiral chromatography’ and ‘phosphorescence analysis’—were quite beyond the reach of most of us, but her devotion to teaching, her passion for research, and her dedication to students are qualities we all can understand—and be grateful for.” a —Joseph T. Maloy
2003 Gordon F. Kirkbright Bursary Award Application packages are now being accepted for the 2003–2004 Gordon Kirkbright Bursary Award, which enables promising, nontenured, young scientists of any nationality to attend a recognized scientific meeting or visit a place of learning. The award is sponsored by the committee of the Association of British Spectroscopists (ABS) and the ABS Trust but is not
A N A LY T I C A L C H E M I S T R Y / O C T O B E R 1 , 2 0 0 2
limited to spectroscopists. For more information, contact John Chalmers, Department of Physical Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom (fax 44-0-164-271-4306;
[email protected]). Completed application packages must be submitted by February 28, 2003.
