Daniel W. Armstrong, Ph.D., Curators' Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Missouri-Rolla, will be honored by the world's largest scientific society for enhancing the public's understanding of chemistry in everyday life. He will receive the Helen M. Free Award for Public Outreach from the American Chemical Society at its national meeting in New Orleans, La., August 22-26.
Armstrong co-hosts the weekly, half-hour radio show We're Science, which promotes better understanding of science and technology in daily life. The show first aired in 1994 on the University of Missouri-Rolla's public radio station, KUMR. A year later it was picked up by National Public Radio. Today, it is carried by over 160 stations around the world and reaches over 70 million people.
The show provides an educational yet entertaining look at science and answers such questions as "Do hot water pipes really freeze sooner than cold?" and "Why do chickens lay eggs all year long while other birds only lay them once a year?"
"We're Science fills a very important niche in society," says Armstrong. "We continually strive to keep the show as loose and irreverent but as accurate and technologically current as possible. It continues to gain popularity because people see that we're not trying to force some agenda or trying to put science on a pedestal-or ourselves for that matter. We poke good-natured fun sometimes at scientists, always at pseudoscience, sometimes at our listeners, and oftentimes at ourselves. Nothing is sacred and everything is eligible."
Armstrong lives in Rolla, Mo. with his wife and three children. He started the Center for Environmental Science and Technology at the University of Missouri-Rolla. He has authored or co-authored over 250 articles in professional journals, has published a book and contributed to 17 others, holds 8 patents, and has received more than $6 million in grants and contracts.
Armstrong is a 1972 graduate of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree with majors in science and mathematics. He holds a Master of Science degree in chemical oceanography from Texas A&M University, awarded in 1974. He received his Ph.D. in bio-organic chemistry, also from Texas A&M University, in 1977.
The Helen M. Free Award for Public Outreach, which consists of a crystal globe and $1,000, is given each year to someone who has made a major effort to communicate to the public how the chemical sciences improve the quality of life.
A nonprofit organization with a membership of nearly 159,000 chemists and chemical engineers, the American Chemical Society publishes scientific journals and databases, convenes major research conferences, and provides educational, science policy and career programs in chemistry. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio. (http://www.acs.org)