News Release

Austin chemist wins American Chemical Society’s Priestley Medal

Grant and Award Announcement

American Chemical Society

Allen J. Bard of Austin, Texas, will be honored April 9 by the world’s largest scientific society for a remarkable career of contributions to chemical research, science policy and mentoring. The American Chemical Society will present to him the 2002 Priestley Medal — its highest honor — at its national meeting in Orlando, Fla.

“He is really a scientist for all seasons who has made highly important contributions across all of chemistry,” wrote a colleague to support the award nomination of Bard, an electrochemical chemist at the University of Texas, Austin.

The scope of his research has ranged from semiconductors and high-tech display technology — called ECL because the technique can generate light through electrochemical reactions — to energy conversion devices such as fuel cells and batteries.

“The most interesting things we are doing now, I think, involve a technique called scanning electrochemistry microscopy,” said Bard. Instead of light, which most microscopes use, SEM uses very small tips or electrodes to study compounds down even to their individual atoms. His group has adapted the technique to study chemical reactions, but they hope to broaden their scrutiny to include biological functions, he said — how calcium passes through cell membranes, for example, or how proteins on membrane surfaces latch on to chemical signals.

He has also served on many national committees dealing with energy and the environment. From 1982 to 2001 he was editor and editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Bard received his undergraduate degree from The City College of New York in 1955 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1958. “I always liked chemistry, even from my days in grade school and high school,” he recalled.

In nearly 44 years at the University of Texas, Bard has left an indelible mark as a teacher as well as a researcher. He has mentored or collaborated with more than 200 graduate students and postdoctoral associates as well as thousands of undergraduate chemistry students.

“He has an innate sense for picking the right project for each individual, rarely shooting too high or too low, and following up with just the right amount of mentoring,” wrote two former students in a 1997 issue of the Journal of Physical Chemistry that was dedicated to him for his 65th birthday.

“None will forget the decades-old, tattered notes that he brought to the class each day (but rarely looked at) or the colored chalk with which he so effectively elucidated the mysteries of electrochemistry,” they continued. “His wry wit and ability to stimulate good questions from his students are his stock and trade in the classroom.”

Bard himself was more laconic: “I think just working with young people is a lot of fun,” he said.

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