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:

        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

The 2009 recipient of the Shirley B. Radding Award is Dr. Bryan Balazs.

Balazs pictureBryan 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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