AUSTIN, Texas — Dr. Larry R. Faulkner, president designate of The University of Texas at Austin, has been named recipient of the 1998 Charles N. Reilley Award, which recognizes outstanding research contributions in electroanalytical chemistry.
Faulkner, professor of chemistry, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, received the award Tuesday (March 3) at the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy that was held March 1-6 in New Orleans.
The conference featured more than 40 invited symposia and over 200 renowned scientists who presented more than 1,800 contributed papers. Program areas focused on environmental analysis, bioanalytical chemistry, materials characterization and petrochemical analytical chemistry.
Faulkner’s award address was titled “As Our Science Opens Its Third Century.”
Faulkner, who will succeed UT Austin President ad interim Peter T. Flawn on April 13 as the University’s 27th president, is being recognized for more than 30 years of research involving diverse areas relating to electrochemistry and analytical chemistry. He is the author or co-author of more than 120 research papers on topics that include electrochemistry and electroanalytical chemistry, fluorescence spectroscopy, transfer processes in systems of controlled chemical architecture, and chemiluminescence.
With UT Austin chemistry professor Allen J. Bard, he is the author of the prominent text, Electrochemical Methods: Fundamentals and Applications, and is co-inventor of the cybernetic potentiostat that has been commercialized by several firms.
Faulkner, a native of Shreveport, La., earned a bachelor of science degree from Southern Methodist University in 1966 and was awarded a Ph.D. in 1969 from UT Austin. He was a member of the chemistry faculty of Harvard University from 1969 to 1973 before moving to Illinois.
After holding a succession of faculty and administrative positions at Illinois, Faulkner was appointed provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs in 1994. Faulkner is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Electrochemical Society. In 1994 he received the Special Maria Sklodowska Curie Medal from the Polish Chemical Society.
He has been active in numerous professional associations, including having served as president of the Electrochemical Society, vice president of the International Society of Electrochemistry, and an officer in the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.