2010 Shirley B. Radding Award

    Again in 2010, the award committee 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:

        bullet Member of the American Chemical Society for more than twenty (20) years.
        bullet Demonstrated dedicated and unselfish service to ACS members over a sustained period of time.
        bullet Provided leadership through elected and appointed ACS positions at local, regional and national levels.
        bullet 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
 2009  Bryan J. Balazs

The Radding Award Committee
The Radding Award Committee consists of three Santa Clara Valley Local section members.  They are:
        Peter F. Rusch, Chair of the Radding Award Committee
        Charles D. Sullivan, ChemPloyment Abstracts Director; and
        The Chair or Chair-Elect of the Section.
    Continuity in the review and selection of the recipient is maintained through the efforts of two continuing members.  Interests of the membership are reflected in the rotating membership of the Chair or Chair-Elect.
    In 2010, the Chair was a nominator for one of the candidates for the 2010 Radding Award.  Accordingly, the Chair-Elect, Abby Kennedy, served as the third member of the Committee.
    The policy of the Committee is to retain each nomination for three consecutive years.  During each of those years all of the new and retained nominations are thoroughly reviewed by the Committee meeting in person.  The Committee also has a policy of contacting each nominator and seconder as to the status of their nomination during each year it is considered.
    Nominations may be submitted along with seconding letters in printed copy by postal service or facsimile transmission or electronically to a special e-mail address maintained for that purpose.
    The Call for Nominations is distributed annually in the following ways:
    Through a brochure mailed to all living recipients of the Award;
    By publication in the Santa Clara Valley Local Section newsletter for several months prior to the May 1 deadline for nominations;
    By publication in C & E News several months prior to the May 1 deadline for nominations;
    By distribution of copies of the printed Call for Nominations at the Spring ACS National Meeting.
    By distribution of the brochure at selected ACS events.
2010 Shirley B. Radding Award
Radding Award presentation
    The 2010 recipient of the Shirley B. Radding Award is Dr. Herbert Silber.
    Dr. Silber majored in chemistry at Lehigh University, obtaining a BS in 1962 and a MS in 1964.  His Ph.D. degree in inorganic chemistry was from the University of California at Davis in 1967, followed by postdoctoral research at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden (1967-8) and the University of Maryland College Park (1968-9).  Prior to joining San Jose State University as an Associate Professor in 1986, he had taught at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (1969-76) and the University of Texas at San Antonio (1976-86).  His major research interests have been in transition metal chemistry, particularly the lanthanides, studying kinetics, thermodynamics and the effect of solvents on metal ion-ligand systems.  He is the principal author of over one hundred publications and for more than thirty years he was one of the co-editors for the United States Rare Earth Research Conferences.  He was associate editor for a four-volume chemistry encyclopedia for high school students.
    Dr. Silber is a 47-year member of the American Chemical Society, having served as Secretary (1983) and Chair of the San Antonio Section (1985).  He has served as Chair (1998) and Treasurer (2005-9) of the Santa Clara Valley Section.  His service to the Santa Clara Valley Section has also included work on several committees,  as Alternate  Councilor (1987-9, 1991-3) and as Councilor (since 1996).
    From 1980-85 he served as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Southwest Region as its only elected officer.
    His national service with ACS started with his appointment as an Associate (1992) and Full (1993-97) Member of the Committee on Project SEED.  He served as Committee Chair of Project SEED (1995-7) prior to being elected Councilor.   He has been a member of the Committee on Meetings and Expositions (2005-7), Committee on Membership Affairs (since 2010), and the Minority Affairs Committee as member and Consultant (1998-2008).  He has been extensively involved in the ACS Scholars Program evaluation (1999-2008) and has served as a member of the Scholars selection committee since 1999.  He has served on two elective committees:  Committee on Committees (1999-2004) and the Committee on Nominations and Elections (2007-9).
Presentation of the Award
    In keeping with the plans of the Committee as adopted by the Executive Committee, Dr. Silber was asked when and where he would like the presentation of his award to be made.
    He suggested that the Award be presented at a monthly dinner meeting of the Santa Clara Valley local section.  The presentation was made at the November, 2010 meeting at the Biltmore Hotel, Santa Clara, California.


--Peter Rusch, Committee Chair

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