COMMITTEE
REPORT
2009 Shirley B. Radding Award
The 2009 Shirley B. Radding Award accepted nominations
without regard to geographic location of the nominee. This was
the eighth year that the Award was open to all nominees. As
customary, the four criteria for the Award remained:
Member
of
the
American Chemical Society for more than twenty (20) years.
Demonstrated
dedicated
and
unselfish service to ACS members over a
sustained period of time.
Provided
leadership
through
elected and appointed ACS positions at
local, regional and national levels.
Made significant contributions to industrial,
applied or academic chemistry.
The Award consists of an honorarium of $1000 and a suitably inscribed
memento.
Previous Award Recipients are:
1994 Shirley B. Radding
1995 Dr. Agnes Ann Green (deceased)
1996 John F. "Jack" Riley (deceased)
1997 Howard M. Peters
1998 Alan C. Nixon (deceased)
1999 Valerie J. Kuck
2000 Halley A. Merrell
2001 Norman A. LeBel (deceased)
2002 Paul H. L. Walter
2003 Jean'ne M. Shreeve
2004 Maureen G. Chan
2005 Dr. Glenn Fuller
2006 Dr. Janan M. Hayes
2007 Merle I. Eiss
2008 Dorothy J. Phillips
The
2009
recipient
of
the Shirley B. Radding Award is Dr. Bryan Balazs.
Bryan Balazs received his B.S. in
chemistry at Washington and Lee University in 1985 and subsequently
spent a year in Germany at the University Erlangen-Nurnberg under an
ITT/Fulbright Fellowship. He obtained a Ph.D. in
Electroanalytical Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology
in 1992, and proceeded from there to a post-doctoral appointment at the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Since being hired by LLNL
as a Staff Scientist in 1994, he has worked on numerous projects
including electrochemical sensors, waste treatment technologies, and
material lifetime predictions. He is currently the Associate
Program Leader for Budgets and Planning within the Primary Nuclear
Design Directorate and is responsible for overseeing and integrating a
large program involving dynamic material properties, high energy
density physics, advanced radiography, and hydrodynamic testing.
Since the early 1990s, Dr. Balazs has been active at the local and
national level in the ACS, serving on numerous committees, including
participation in many activities targeted towards education. He
is currently the Chair of the Educational Grants Committee within the
California Section and has led this committee for more than a decade as
it has given out more than $120,000 to high schools, colleges, and
universities to supplement material needs for laboratory or classroom
instruction. He has also worked to create local programs for high
schools within the California Section and to better align activities of
this section with other chemistry-education organizations such as the
California Association of Chemistry Teachers, and through educational
outreach activities such as National Chemistry Week.
Dr. Balazs has been an associate member or member of the ACS Committee
on Education (SOCED) from 2002 to the present, serving as Chair of its
K-12 subcommittee from 2004-2006. From 2007 to the present, he
has been the Chair of SOCED and has worked to align the efforts of this
committee to further the ACS's strategic goals in the area of
education. Dr. Balazs is a Councilor for the California Section
of the ACS and is an associate member of the ACS Committee on Economic
and Professional Affairs. He is also a member of the ACS Board's
Presidential Task Force on Education (chaired by Professor Richard Zare
of Stanford), a member of the PacifiChem 2010 Organizing Committee, and
a member of the Board of Trustees of the California Section.
Presentation
of
the
Award
In keeping with the plans of the Committee as adopted by the Executive
Committee, Dr. Balazs was asked when and where he would like the
presentation of his award to be made.
He suggested that the Award be presented at the annual Santa Clara
Valley Family Picnic and Awards Presentation held at Stanford
University on July 11, 2009, and it was.
Peter
Rusch,
Chair
Radding
Award
Committee
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