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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

1974George Smets, University of Louvain, Belgium
1975Motowo Takayanagi, Kyūshū University, Japan
1976Helmut Ringsdorf, University of Mainz, Germany
1977Anthony Ledwith, University of Liverpool, England
1978Ora Kedem, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
1979Bengt Ranby, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
1980Gerard Riess, Upper Alsace University, France
1981Kenneth O’Driscoll, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
1982Piero Pino, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland
1983Robert N. Haward, University of Birmingham, England
1984Joachim Klein, Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany
1985Norio Ise, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
1986Robert Gilbert, University of Sydney, Australia
1987James E. McGrath, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
1988Robert W. Lenz, University of Massachusetts Amherst
1989Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Collège de France, Paris, France
1990Gerhard Wegner, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany
1991Donald R. Paul, University of Texas, Austin
1992James Economy, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
1993Garth L. Wilkes, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
1994David A. Tirrell, University of Massachusetts Amherst
1995Christopher W. Macosko, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
1996Kenneth B. Wagener, University of Florida, Gainesville
1997Takeji Hashimoto, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
1998Bruce M. Novak, University of Massachusetts Amherst
2000Edwin L. Thomas, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
2001James E. Mark, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati
2002Roderic P. Quirk, The University of Akron, Akron
2003Matthew Tirrell, University of California, Santa Barbara
2004Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
2005Markus Antonietti, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Germany
2006Robert K. Prud’homme, Princeton University
2007Stephen Z.D. Cheng, The University of Akron, Akron
2008Thomas P. Russell, University of Massachusetts Amherst
2009Joseph DeSimone, UNC (Chapel Hill) and NCSU (Raleigh)
2010Richard A. Gross, New York University, Brooklyn
2011Timothy P. Lodge, University of Minnesota
2012Kathryn Uhrich, Rutgers University
2013Kenneth R. Shull, Northwestern University
2014Alex Mueller, University of Bayreuth, Bavaria
2015N/A
2016N/A
2017N/A
2018Jeremiah A. Johnson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2019 Craig J. Hawker, University of California Santa Barbara
2020 N/A
2021 N/A
2022Christopher Kemper Ober, Cornell University
2023Karen Wooley, Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University
2024Tobin J. Marks, Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University