Thomas Werner, Florence B. Sherwood Professor of Physical Sciences, received the American Chemical Society's Award for Research at an Undergraduate Institution.
Funded by Research Corporation, a private foundation for the advancement of science, the award was established in 1984 to honor a chemistry faculty member whose research in an undergraduate setting has achieved wide recognition and contributed significantly to chemistry and to the professional development of undergraduate students.
The award consists of $5,000 and a certificate. Research Corporation also is providing a grant of $5,000 directly to Union.
Werner, a professor of chemistry who joined Union in 1971, has directed about 50 senior theses, which have produced publications with over 30 student co-authors, and over 35 presentations at regional and national conferences. Last year, one of his students, Tania Magoon of Pittsfield, Mass., received a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. She is pursuing her Ph.D. in chemistry at Harvard University.
A longtime member and former chair of the board of governors of the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, Werner twice co-chaired Union's hosting of NCUR (in 1990 and 1995), the largest national conference of its kind. Werner is also a co-author of a history of NCUR, which is to appear in The Journal of Chemical Education.
He helped establish in 1991 the Steinmetz Symposium on undergraduate scholarly activity, a two-day internal conference in which about 250 Union students participate.
Werner serves as co-PI of Union's NSF-AIRE award, a $500,000 grant awarded in part for the College's promotion of undergraduate research. Funding has been used for summer research stipends and to develop “miniterm” research experiences. Werner has been a PI on eight grants that support undergraduate research at the College. He also is director of the NCUR/Lancy Initiative, which provides institutions with support for faculty-mentored research.