Our 125th Anniversary Prominent Alumni
| 1886 BSc, 1888 MA | George Bell Frankforter |
| Department’s first BSc and first MA; Earned PhD 1893 from Royal University of Berlin; Became Dean and Director of School of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis | |
| 1886 BSc | Elton Fulmer |
| 1895 Founding member of the Nebraska ACS Local Section; Became Chair of Chemistry Department at Washington State Agricultural College, Pullman; Later became Washington State Chemist | |
| 1890 BSc, 1894 MA | Henry Bruce Duncanson |
| Became Professor of Geology and Natural History at Nebraska State Normal School, Peru | |
| 1891 BSc | Paul L. Hibbard |
| 1895 Founding member of the Nebraska ACS Local Section; Became Plant Nutritionist at the University of California Experiment Station, Berkeley | |
| 1891 BSc, 1893 MA | Rosa Bouton |
| Department’s first woman BSc and MA; second regular woman member of the American Chemical Society; 1895 Founding member of the ACS Local Section in which she remained very active; Became Dean of School of Home Economics, University of Nebraska | |
| 1891 BSc | Clarence Conrad Fletcher |
| Became Chief Chemist at Great Western Sugar Co. in Monte Vista, Colorado | |
| 1892 BSc, 1894 MA | Samuel Avery |
| Earned PhD 1896 at University of Heidelberg; Became Chair of Chemistry Department and then Chancellor at University of Nebraska | |
| 1893 BSc | Herbert Almon Senter |
| 1895 Founding member of the ACS Local Section in which he remained very active; Earned PhD 1896 at University of Heidelberg; Became Head of Chemistry Department at Omaha High School; Formed the Omaha ACS Local Section in 1921 | |
| 1894 BSc | Francis F. Tucker |
| 1895 Founding member of the Nebraska ACS Local Section; He and his wife Emma Boose Tucker earned their MDs and then ran the Francis Tucker Mission Hospital in P’ang Chuan Te Chou, Shantung, China from 1905-1930 | |
| 1894 BSc, 1898 MA | Mary Louise Fossler |
| Department’s second woman BSc and PhD; Professor of Physiological Chemistry at Universities of Nebraska, Chicago, and then Southern California | |
| 1894 BSc, 1896 MA | Robert Silver Hiltner |
1895 Founding member of the Nebraska ACS Local Section; Became Chief of the Federal Food and Drug Laboratories for the US Department of Agriculture in Denver |
|
| 1895 BSc, 1897 MA | Edward Charles Elliott |
| Earned PhD 1905 in Education from Columbia University; Became First Chancellor of the University of Montana; Became Sixth President of Purdue University 1922-1945; Became Director of Educational Relations for the American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education 1947-1952; Became Educational Consultant for the Commanding General of the Army Ordnance Corps; Received the National Award of Meritorious Civilian Service for his work with the Ordnance Training Command in 1956 | |
| 1895 BSc, 1899 MA | Mariel Clapham Gere |
| Department’s third woman to earn BSc and MA; Was Willa Cather’s best friend during their College days; Became Head of Chemistry at Lincoln High School; Wrote High School Chemistry textbook titled “Outlines of Elementary Chemistry” in 1907; Inspired student Mary Louis Murphy to earn BSc Chemistry degree at the University of Nebraska (Murphy then earned MD at UNMC and was an early pioneer in pediatric cancer research) | |
| 1897 BSc, 1899 MA | Howard Coon Parmalee |
| Became Editor of a series of Mining Magazines based in Denver; Became President of the Colorado School of Mines 1921; Became editor of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering in New York | |
| 1899 MA | Benton Dales |
| Earned BSc 1895 and PhD 1901 Cornell University; Became Chair of Chemistry Department at University of Nebraska; Wrote “Elementary Quantitative Analysis” in 1916; Became Rubber Chemist for Goodrich Tire Company | |
| 1899 MA | Yasujuro Nikaido |
| His parents immigrated from Japan to become beet sugar farmers near Scottsbluff; Earned BSc 1897 Nebraska Wesleyan University; Began career as Chief Chemist Owosso Sugar Company, Michigan; Wrote “Beet-Sugar Making and Its Chemical Control” in 1909; Became Chief Chemist at Michigan Chemical Company | |
| 1918 MA, 1924 PhD | Saul Bryans Arenson |
| Department’s fifth PhD; Became Professor of Chemistry at University of Cincinnati; Co-wrote “Exercises in General Chemistry and Qualitative Analysis” with Horace G. Deming that went through four editions between 1924 and 1935 | |
| 1920 MA, 1924 PhD | Lila Sands |
| Department’s first woman to earn PhD; Department’s sixth PhD; Her graduate work generated five publications in the Journal of the American Chemistry Society; Became Professor Chemistry at University of Arizona, Tucson; Published extensively on compounds from mesquite and cacti | |
| 1927 MS | Viola Carmen Jelinek |
| Began her research career in the USDA Human Nutrition and Home Economics Department 1930-1944; Became Researcher at Merck & Co. in Rahway, New Jersey | |
| 1930 BA, 1931 MS | Lucile R. Hac |
| Became Professor of Biochemistry at the Northwestern University School of Medicine where she developed analytic methods to measure micronutrients | |
| 1931 MS, 1933 PhD | Leon Albert Sweet |
| Became Director of Research at Parke Davis, Detroit | |
| 1933 MS | James M. Dille |
| Became Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Washington | |
| 1933 MS | Myron Truman Kelley |
| Became Director of the Analytical Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
| 1933 PhD | Harold P. Brown |
| Became Dean of Engineering at University of Washington | |
| 1934 BSc, 1935 MS | Verner Schomaker |
| Earned PhD 1938 at California Institute of Technology under Linus Pauling; Performed the x-ray diffraction work that Pauling used to propose a DNA structure; Became Professor of Chemistry at Caltech; 1949 ACS Award in Pure Chemistry; Became Researcher at Union Carbide Research Institute; Became Chair of Chemistry at University of Washington | |
| 1934 BSc, 1935 MS | Robert M. Joyce |
| Earned PhD from University of Illinois-Urbana; Became DuPont’s Director of Research for the Central Research Department, the Film Department, and the Pharmaceuticals Division of the Biochemistry Department; He produced the first intentional sample of Teflon and then led its development into a useable product | |
| 1935 MS, 1937 PhD | Georg A. Harrington |
| Became President of Amoco International, Geneva, Switzerland | |
| 1936 MS | Walter Floyd Holcomb |
| Became Director of Research Administration at Parke Davis, Anne Arbor | |
| 1936 MS | Robert Michael Joyce |
| Became Research Director at DuPont, Wilmington, Delaware | |
| 1938 MS | Robert Eugene Rundle |
| Earned PhD 1941 at California Institute of Technology under Linus Pauling; Became Professor of Chemistry at Iowa State College where his x-ray crystallography research played an important role in forming the Ames National Laboratory | |
| 1938 MS, 1940 PhD | Joseph Lloyd Parker |
| Became President and Chairman of Anchor Industries, Tulsa | |
| 1938 MS, 1940 PhD | Clarence Kenneth Banks |
| Became Vice President of Metal and Thermite Chemicals, Rahway, New Jersey | |
| 1939 BSc, 1940 MS | Walter A. Schroeder |
| Performed hemoglobin sequencing work at Caltech that Pauling used to propose the genetic basis of Sickle Cell Anemia; Became Senior Research Associate of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at California Institute of Technology | |
| 1940 BSc, 1942 MS | Nolan Ben Sommer |
| Earned PhD 1943 Indiana University; Became Senior Vice President and Director of American Cyanamid Co.; Gave Dinner Speak at the Dedication of Hamilton Hall | |
| 1940 MSc | Earl Burdette Barnes |
| Became Chairman of Dow International | |
| 1940 MSc, 1943 PhD | Jack Franklin Morgan |
| Became Chief Chemist of Product Development for GAF Corp.; Co-authored Chapter 10 on arsenic compounds in Organic Reactions: Vol. 2 with Cliff S.Hamilton. Voted two of the best publications in the 1st Half Century by the Society of Chemists and Colorists of London, England; were two later publications by Jack Morgan produced while working in industry. | |
| 1940 PhD | Chris P. Keim |
| Earned 1932 MS in Physics from University of Nebraska; Became Superintendent of Isotope Development at Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Corp., Oak Ridge, Tennessee | |
| 1942 BSc, 1944 MS | Lester Christensen Krogh |
| Became Vice President for Research and Development of 3M, St. Paul | |
| 1942 MS, 1947 PhD | Earl Winton Malmberg |
| Became Chief Scientist at Sun Oil Company | |
| 1942 MS | Donald James Cram |
| Earned PhD 1947 at Harvard University; Became Professor of Chemistry at the University of California-Los Angeles; Awarded 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry | |
| 1943 BSc | James Hewitt |
| Became Researcher at DuPont where he developed synthetic rubber such as Orlon, Lycra, Nomex, and Permasep | |
| 1943 MA, 1945 PhD | Dexter B. Sharp |
| Became Research Director for Environmental Science at Monsanto Agricultural Co. | |
| 1943 BSc, 1947 MS | Fred W. McLafferty |
| Earned PhD 1950 at Cornell University; A pioneer in mass spectrometric analysis and instrumentation development; Currently Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Cornell; Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1982 | |
| 1943 BSc, 1944 MS | Robert Arnold Alberty |
| Earned PhD 1947 at University of Wisconsin-Madison; Currently Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; co-wrote “Physical Chemistry” textbook with Farrington Daniels in 1955 that went through many editions; co-wrote “Physical Chemistry” with Robert J. Silbey in 1991 that is now in its third edition; Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1965 | |
| 1945 PhD | Calvert Watson Whitehead |
| Became Professor of Chemistry at the University of Utah; he developed organic synthetic routes for antibiotics and nucleosides | |
| 1948 MS, 1950 PhD | Herbert Neal Dunning |
| Became Technical Director of Quality Control at General Mills | |
| 1951 BSc | Donald R. Weyenberg |
| Earned PhD 1958 Pennsylvania State University; Became Director of Research at Dow Corning, Midland, Michigan | |
| 1951 BSc, 1954 MS, 1960 PhD | Heinz Rupert Schreiner |
| Became Manager of Research and Development at Union Carbide Co. | |
| 1951 MS, 1952 PhD | David P. Sheetz |
| Became Executive Vice President for Corporate Research of Dow Chemical Co., Midland, Michigan | |
| 1952 BSc, 1954 MS, 1956 PhD | Alfred Hassner |
| Became Professor at University of Colorado-Boulder; Received 1979 Lady Davis Foundation Award from the ACS National Awards Committee; Served on the Editorial Board of Journal of Organic Chemistry; Authored and Co-authored numerous monographs in the area of heterocyclic chemistry | |
| 1952 MS | Robert Lee Eifert |
| Became Engineering Superintendent for Plastic Products and Research Division of DuPont Co. | |
| 1952 MS, 1954 PhD | Kenneth Clayton Kennard |
| Became Vice President and General Manager of Bio-Products at Kodak Research Labs, Rochester | |
| 1953 MS | Frank L. Pilar |
| Became Professor of Chemistry at University of New Hampshire; Wrote “Elementary Quantum Chemistry” in 1968 that went through two editions | |
| 1954 BS, 1958 MS | James Paddock Collman |
| Earned PhD 1958 at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Became Chaired Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University; 1975 Elected to the National Academy of Sciences; 1975 ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry; 1983 California Scientist of the Year; 1986 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award | |
| 1955 MS, 1958 PhD | John Thomas Brandenburg |
| Became President of Damark International Inc. | |
| 1957 MS | Mack Williss Hunt |
| Became Director of Research for Petroleum Products at Amoco | |
| 1958 MS, 1959 PhD | Jack Leonard Koenig |
| Became Professor Emeritus of Macromolecular Science at Case Western Reserve; 2000 Elected to the National Academy of Engineering; 2005 Inducted into Plastics Hall of Fame | |
| 1958 MS, 1960 PhD | Ronald A. Mitsch |
| Became Vice Chairman of the Board and Executive Vice President of Industrial and Consumer Markets for 3M, St. Paul; Awarded 1999 Commercial Development Association’s Man of the Year | |
| 1960 MS, 1961 PhD | Charles L. Geisler |
| Became Director of Technical Computing at 3M, St. Paul | |
| 1961 BSc, 1965 PhD | Mary Eileen Schmelzer McKnight |
| Currently Researcher for Building Materials Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology; 1995 American Society for Standard Materials Award of Merit and elected ASTM Fellow | |
| 1964 BSc | Roger Schlechte |
| Earned 1977 Master of Divinity at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana; Became Pastor at Emmaus Lutheran Church, Denver | |
| 1965 MS, 1966 PhD | Joseph A. Merrigan |
| Became Head of Special Processes Lab at Kodak Research Labs, Rochester | |
| 1965 PhD | James J. Fuerholzer |
| Became President of Morton Yokohama Inc., Chicago | |
| 1965 PhD | James E. Lohr |
| Became Director of Editorial Operations for Chemical Abstracts Services | |
| 1966 BSc, 1971 MS | David W. Oates |
| Became Forensic Scientist for Nebraska Games and Parks Commission | |
| 1966 BSc, 1967 MS | Andris Indriksons |
| Earned PhD 1971 University of Wisconsin; Became Research Director of Regulatory Affairs at Seragen, Indianapolis | |
| 1968 BSc | Leslie C. Hellbusch |
| Earned MD 1972 Northwestern University; Became President of Midwest Neurosurgery PC, Omaha | |
| 1969 BSc, 1979 PhD | David H. Sieh |
| Became Group Director for Analytical Research and Development at Pfizer Inc. | |
| 1970 PhD | Alexander Ramig Jr. |
| Became Vice President of Research and Development at ICI Paints | |
| 1970 MS, 1975 PhD | Chao-Huei J. (C. Jeffrey) Wang |
| Became Director of Chemistry in the Pandex Division of Baxter International, Libertyville, Illinois | |
| 1972 BSc | Paul W. Ludden |
| Earned PhD 1977 University of Wisconsin-Madison; Became Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Southern Methodist University, Dallas | |
| 1974 PhD | Daniel R. Draney |
| Became Director of Chemistry at Li-Cor, Lincoln | |
| 1975 PhD | Dixie J. Goss |
| Became Chaired professor at Hunter College, City University of New York | |
| 1979 MS, 1983 PhD | Rafael Enfante |
| Became Director of Beckton Environmental Labs, Ponce, Puerto Rico; Received the Dr. Osoldo Ramirez Torres Award in 2000 | |
| 1979 PhD | Charles William McLaughlin |
| Became Chemistry Teacher at St. Joseph Central High School, Missouri; 1983 Missouri Teacher of the Year; 1984 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching; Senior Lecturer at University of Nebraska; Co-authored “Merrill Physical Science” textbook in 1995; 2005 Awarded University of Nebraska Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award | |
| 1980 PhD | Paul B. Kelter |
| Currently Head of Department of Teaching and Learning at Northern Illinois University; Produced a video series of Chemical Lecture Demonstrations in 1991; 1999 Awarded University of Nebraska Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award; Co-wrote “Chemistry—A World of Choice” textbook in 2002 with Andrew Scott and James Carr that is now in its second edition; 2004 Elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Co-wrote “Chemistry: The Practical Science” textbook in 2006 with Andrew Scott and Michael Mosher | |
| 1981 PhD | Mary Bossard |
| Became Director of Biopharmaceutical Research at Nektar Therapeutics in Huntsville, Alabama | |
| 1983 PhD | Gerald Bossard |
| Earned 1998 Divinity degree at Concordia Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana; Became Pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Madison, Alabama | |
| 1984 BSc | J. Martin Scholtz |
| Earned PhD 1989 University of California-Berkeley; Currently Head of Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine at Texas A &M Health Science Center | |
| 1984 PhD | Michael J. Grace |
| Senior Principal Scientist at Schering-Plough Research Institute, Bloomfield, New Jersey | |
| 1984 PhD | Kenneth J. Gruys |
| Director of Calgene Campus of Monsanto Co., Davis, California | |
| 1991 PhD | David L. Farrens |
| Currently Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Oregon Health & Science University |