News Release

Ray Dessy receives Dreyfus Foundation Senior Mentor Award

Will support undergraduate research in SPR use for high-throughput screening in high-threat infectious-disease situations

Grant and Award Announcement

Virginia Tech

BLACKSBURG, Va., March 22, 2002-- Ray Dessy, professor emeritus of chemistry at Virginia Tech, has received one of 10 Camille and Henry Dreyfus Senior Scientist Mentor Initiative Grants for 2002-2004.

The Dreyfus Award, from The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, is intended for emeritus faculty maintaining research programs in the chemical sciences. It is given primarily for support of undergraduate research assistants in chemistry, chemical engineering, and biochemistry. The foundation feels that emeritus professors are often in an ideal position to devote their time to exposing undergraduates to the technical and personal principles of the professions. Other recipients of this year’s Dreyfus award included researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Ohio State, Iowa State, and Cal Tech.

Dessy’s current research is directed at an X-Y addressable SPR biosensor array for use in high-throughput screening and high-threat infectious-disease situations. He is currently working on self-assembling films for use with bio-detector systems, new techniques for analyzing pharmaceuticals in high-throughput conditions, and assessing high-threat infectious disease environments.

His Dreyfus Award will primarily provide funds for support of undergraduates learning to do research in these areas. This coming year, Jennifer Haas of chemistry, David Barry of mechanical science and engineering, and Shereef Sayed of computer engineering will work on Dreyfus projects with Dessy, in conjunction with Carlos Suchicital of mechanical and systems engineering and Robert Hendricks of MicrON, the newly established Virginia Tech chip-fabrication facility.

Dessy, who has been at Virginia Tech for 36 years and in university teaching for 45 years, said he enjoys working with undergraduates with interests in synthesis, biochemical analysis, and biosensor design and with undergraduates coming from biochemistry, engineering, or chemistry. His group has trained more than 100 Ph.D.-level students and published more than 250 papers in areas as diverse as organic synthesis, physical-organic chemistry, organometallic ion-radicals, lab automation, and micro-biosensors. Fifteen percent of his students have gone on to teach at universities. Others hold significant positions at pharmaceutical, petrochemical, and instrument firms.

"Ray Dessy is hardly ‘retired’ from scientific pursuits," said Larry Taylor, chemistry department head. "We are fortunate to have him working in our department."

"Dessy’s laboratory is rapidly becoming recognized as a Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) Center in the United States," Taylor said. "Leica, Biotul, BMG and Jandratek of Munich, Germany, are installing SPR-related instruments in his laboratory. The instruments provide completely roboticized equipment capable of high-throughput screening. Three groups from chemistry, two groups from chemical engineering, and one group each from biology, biochemistry, and geology are using the units installed in chemistry’s Instrumentation Lab.

Dessy has been a Sloan and Cottrell Fellow and a National Science Foundation Senior Postdoctoral Fellow. He received the American Chemical Society’s first national award in Computers in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research, the University of Pittsburgh’s Distinguished Alumni Award, and an Honorary Doctor of Science from Hampden-Sydney.

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PR CONTACT: Sally Harris 540-231-6759 slharris@vt.edu

Dr. Dessy can be reached at 540-231-5842 dessyre@vt.edu


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