2020 Graduates and Awards

Congratulations to all of our graduates this year! It is disappointing that we cannot celebrate together in a commencement ceremony, but such ceremonies are just the icing on the cake - and it is the substance of the cake that is most important. Your hard work for the past four (or more) years has paid off with your degree which will open doors to employment and graduate studies.

A shout of praise also goes out to the numerous students in our department and classes who won awards this spring and scholarships for next year. In particular we want to mention Precious-Gold Akpadija and David Aupperle as our first winners of the new Gretchen Anderson Pathways Scholarship in honor of our late department chair and biochemist, Dr. Gretchen Anderson.

Freshman Chemistry Achievement Award
   Hasan Alsaymary
   Melyse Ishimwe
ACS Undergraduate Analytical Chemistry Award
   Andrea Valadez
Undergraduate Award in Organic Chemistry
   Kyle Geller
Student Excellence Award in Biochemistry
   Frederique Audrey Tchinty Doue
   Joel Green
Student Excellence Award in Chemistry
   Humberto Chavarria
   Andrea Valadez
Joseph H. Ross Seminar Award
   Joel Green
George Nazaroff Scholarship
   Brianna Jones
   Naseem Alfadhl
Gretchen Anderson Pathways Scholarship
   Precious-Gold Akpadija
   David Aupperle
Carolyn & Lawrence Garber Summer Research Scholarship
   Naseem Alfadhl

Connie Fox wins Outstanding CLAS Staff Member Award

Last week Connie Fox was awarded the 2020 Outstanding CLAS Staff Member Award. As the only full-time professional staff member in our department, she is recognized as the final authority on laboratory safety, waste disposal, chemical inventory, and supply orders. Fox has been laboratory director since 1984 and has served the university longer than any of the current full-time faculty members – however, her history with IU goes back further.  In 1978 she received her undergraduate degree in chemistry (B.A.) at IU South Bend and then headed to Northwestern to earn a graduate degree in chemistry (M.S.) in 1980. Fox was an exceptional student at IU South Bend and won both the Senior Excellence award and Analytical Chemistry award that we still offer to students to this day.  Fox is incredibly well-respected on campus; her colleagues and students note her experience, knowledge, foresight, sharpness, and fairness. While chemists don’t typically have much naval inclination, different faculty have both used ships to describe Fox, calling her the ‘engine that drives the department’ and the ‘hull that keeps us afloat’.  Another commented “when I first interviewed at IU South Bend for my faculty position, I wrote in my notes that Connie Fox is the person who runs the department. There is no question that she still does.” We all fear the day of her retirement knowing that it will take years for her replacement to fill even one of her shoes. Congratulations on this award; it is well-deserved!