News Release

Schenectady chemist wins national award for research with students

Grant and Award Announcement

American Chemical Society

Thomas C. Werner of Schenectady, N.Y., will be honored April 9 by the world’s largest scientific society for conducting notable research using undergraduate students as assistants, choosing projects that help them explore a wide range of chemistry. He will receive the 2002 Award for Research at an Undergraduate Institution from the American Chemical Society at its national meeting in Orlando, Fla.

“The very close contact that students can have with teachers day-to-day at a primarily undergraduate school — it’s difficult to overestimate that influence,” said Werner, an analytical chemist who teaches at Union College.

Werner said that, as a chemistry professor who conducts research without a stable of graduate students and post-doctoral researchers, he and others like him have made a choice about the pace of their work in the field. But the trade-off is worth it, he added: “I have the facilities I need, the freedom to do what I want and some great students. That’s quite a combination.”

His own research interests have followed what he described as “a fascination with things that give off light.” He works particularly with doughnut-shaped molecules called cyclodextrins, which do not themselves glow but can enhance the properties of molecules that do. A complex of the two can make a chemical sensor — a molecule that glows to signal the activation of a gene, for example — more sensitive.

“Cyclodextrins have all kinds of applications. They can also increase the solubility of drugs or stabilize fragrances in laundry products,” said Werner. “So they’re really nice for students to study all kinds of things, like chemical equilibrium, synthesis, and molecular mechanisms.”

A teacher’s influence guided Werner himself toward chemistry, he said. “When I was in high school, one of my teachers — a really charismatic guy — got me interested in chemistry. When I went to college, I thought I'd try it out but if I didn’t like it I’d change to math. But I was hooked from the first day.”

Werner received his undergraduate degree from Juniata College in 1964 and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969. He is a member of the ACS divisions of analytical chemistry and chemical education.

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The ACS Award for Research at an Undergraduate Institution is sponsored by Research Corp.


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