AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

Human Rights Day Event
Chemistry and the Middle East: Honoring Dr. Zafra M. Lerman

Biographies of the Speakers

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Arthur B. Ellis joined the National Science Foundation (NSF) as Director of the Division of Chemistry in 2002. He is on detail from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he has served as Meloche-Bascom Professor of Chemistry since 1986. Ellis and his co-workers conduct research on nanoscale shape memory alloys and develop instructional materials on nanotechnology. Ellis received a B.S. degree in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received a Director's Distinguished Teaching Scholar Award from NSF in 2001 and a Director's Meritorious Service Award from NSF in 2004.

Charles Kolb is the president and chief executive officer of Aerodyne Research, Inc.; he joined Aerodyne as a Senior Research Scientist in 1971. At Aerodyne, his personal areas of research have included atmospheric and environmental chemistry, combustion chemistry, chemical lasers, materials chemistry, and the chemical physics of rocket and aircraft exhaust plumes. He is the author or co-author of over 160 archival publications in these fields. Dr. Kolb has been a member of numerous government and National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council committees dealing with atmospheric and environmental chemistry issues and was recognized as a National Associate of the National Academies in 2003. He received the 1997 Award for Creative Advances in Environmental Science and Technology from the American Chemical Society. He has been elected a fellow of the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and has served as the atmospheric sciences editor of the journal, Geophysics Research Letters (1995-1999). Dr. Kolb attended MIT for his undergraduate education, and received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Princeton in 1971.

Zafra M. Lerman is Distinguished Professor of Science and Public Policy, and Head of the Institute for Science Education and Science Communication at Columbia College Chicago. She received her Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science, and conducted research in isotope effects at Cornell University, Northwestern University, and at the Swiss Polytechnic in Zurich, Switzerland. Prof. Lerman developed an innovative approach of teaching science to non-science majors, which has received national and international recognition. She has been invited to lecture on her methods all over the U.S. and in many other countries, including Brazil, Turkey, Hungary, Australia, England, Russia, Germany, Mexico, China, Japan, Taiwan, Cuba, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa and Israel. She has received over $5,000,000 in the past few years to work with Chicago inner-city teachers, parents and students. Prof. Lerman received the 1998 American Chemical Society Award for Encouraging Disadvantaged Students into Careers in the Chemical Sciences. In 1999 she received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring from President Clinton. In 2000 she was presented with the World Cultural Council’s Jose Vasconcelos World Award for Education in Johannesburg, South Africa (the first international award presented in the new democratic South Africa), and in February 2001, she was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is the 2002 recipient of the James Flack Norris Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Chemistry from the American Chemical Society —Northeastern Section, and is the 2003 recipient of the American Chemical Society’s Charles Lathrop Parsons Award in recognition of outstanding public service to chemistry. The Royal Society of Chemistry in England awarded her with the 2005 Ronald Nyholm Lectureship – Education Division award, and the New York Academy of Sciences presented her with the 2005 Heinz Pagels Award for Human Rights for Scientists. She has also been featured by newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations around the world. Prof. Lerman remains very active professionally with national and international associations in the fields of science, science education, and scientific freedom and human rights. It remains Dr. Lerman's tenet that free and equal access to science education is a basic human right that belongs to all.

Ahmed Mohamed is a Welch Visiting Professor of Chemistry at Texas A&M University and on a Faculty position at Zagazig University, Egypt. He obtained his Ph.D degree from The university of Maine in gold drugs following a masters degree from Egypt in the isotope extraction. His main interest is the electronic and photophysical properties of gold complexes. His name is listed in WHO’s WHO in USA in 2004 and 2005 and WHO’s WHO in Science and Engineering 2006. He is a co-author of Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems supported by UNESCO and The Chemistry of Gold and Silver Complexes edited by Saul Patai.

E Ann Nalley is President-Elect of the American Chemical Society. She will take office as President on January 1, 2007. She had previously served for seven years on the Board of Directors of the American Chemicals Society as Director of District V. She is a member of the PACIFICHEM Organizing Committee and was the first woman to be appointed to that position. In 1996, Division of Professional Relation's Henry Hill Award for Outstanding Contributions to Professionalism and in 1992, she was honored by the five sections of the American Chemical Society as the Oklahoma Chemist of the Year. She was the first and only woman to be so honored. She was recently honored by the National Iota Sigma Pi Honor Society for Women in Chemistry with their Professional Excellence award. She is a Professor of Chemistry in the Physical Science Department at Cameron University, a position that she has held since 1969. Before coming to Cameron she taught high school chemistry and mathematics at Muskogee High School. She has held positions as a visiting scientist or professor in the Chemistry Departments at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas at Dallas, and the Polymer Science Department at the University of Southern Mississippi. She earned a Bachelor of Science Degree at Northeastern Oklahoma State University, a Master's Degree in Analytical Chemistry at Oklahoma State University, and a Ph.D. in Radiation Chemistry from Texas Woman's University. Her research includes new product development and solving industrial problems in the area of cosmetic analysis, nanostructural materials, applied research in the petroleum industry and molecular modeling. She also served on the Board of Directors of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (the largest and most prestigious multidisciplinary honor society) for 21 years, completing her last term as the immediate past National President in August of 2001.

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(site updated 12/01/2005)