Visiting Professorship

Michigan Molecular Institute (MMI), the former tenant of the St. Andrews faculty, was very focused on continuing education as part of its mission. This led to a steady stream of outside experts through the institute, including the visiting professor program, established in 1973 and renamed in 1981 as a living memorial to the late Dr. Turner J. Alfrey, Jr. Each year, a leading scientist is invited to teach a short course, visit sponsoring organizations, and deliver additional research seminars, benefiting many people by providing a point of connection between local scientists and engineers, with world leaders in the polymer science field.

Speakers from around the world have been invited to present the latest, most up-to-date information in their particular polymer expertise areas. Typically, these courses were delivered in an intensive, one-week, daily lecture format. Visiting professors also spent additional time at MMI, participating in one-on-one and research group discussions at the Institute, and in collaborations and discussions with other nearby industrial and academic researchers. They also prepared and delivered a set of on-site seminars for many of the sponsoring organizations that parallel and supplement the formal course lectures. Financial co-sponsors of the Turner J. Alfrey Visiting Professor program have included the Dow Chemical Company, Dow Corning Corporation, Michigan State University, Central Michigan University, Saginaw Valley State University, the Mid-Michigan Section of the Society of Plastics Engineers, and the Midland Section of the American Chemical Society.

Michigan State University and the St. Andrews’ staff are proud to continue the Turner J. Alfrey Visiting Professorship program and look forward to future events.

The list of Turner J. Alfrey Visiting Professors includes several Nobel Prize winners.

Source: Michigan Molecular Institute Wiki

1974	George Smets, University of Louvain, Belgium
1975	Motowo Takayanagi, Kyūshū University, Japan
1976	Helmut Ringsdorf, University of Mainz, Germany
1977	Anthony Ledwith, University of Liverpool, England
1978	Ora Kedem, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
1979	Bengt Ranby, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
1980	Gerard Riess, Upper Alsace University, France
1981	Kenneth O’Driscoll, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
1982	Piero Pino, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland
1983	Robert N. Haward, University of Birmingham, England
1984	Joachim Klein, Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany
1985	Norio Ise, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
1986	Robert Gilbert, University of Sydney, Australia
1987	James E. McGrath, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
1988	Robert W. Lenz, University of Massachusetts Amherst
1989	Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Collège de France, Paris, France
1990	Gerhard Wegner, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany
1991	Donald R. Paul, University of Texas, Austin
1992	James Economy, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
1993	Garth L. Wilkes, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
1994	David A. Tirrell, University of Massachusetts Amherst
1995	Christopher W. Macosko, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
1996	Kenneth B. Wagener, University of Florida, Gainesville
1997	Takeji Hashimoto, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
1998	Bruce M. Novak, University of Massachusetts Amherst
2000	Edwin L. Thomas, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
2001	James E. Mark, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati
2002	Roderic P. Quirk, The University of Akron, Akron
2003	Matthew Tirrell, University of California, Santa Barbara
2004	Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
2005	Markus Antonietti, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Germany
2006	Robert K. Prud’homme, Princeton University
2007	Stephen Z.D. Cheng, The University of Akron, Akron
2008	Thomas P. Russell, University of Massachusetts Amherst
2009	Joseph DeSimone, UNC (Chapel Hill) and NCSU (Raleigh)
2010	Richard A. Gross, New York University, Brooklyn
2011	Timothy P. Lodge, University of Minnesota
2012	Kathryn Uhrich, Rutgers University
2013	Kenneth R. Shull, Northwestern University
2014	Alex Mueller, University of Bayreuth, Bavaria
2015	N/A
2016	N/A
2017	N/A
2018	Jeremiah A. Johnson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology