Professor Emeritus Potts to be Honored by American Chemical Society

Professor Emeritus and current Research Professor Lawrence Potts will be the 2010 recipient of the prestigious J. Calvin Giddings Award for Excellence in Education.

The award is given out annually by the American Chemical Society and has honored notable analytical chemists in the past such as Izaac Kolthoff, Howard Malmstadt, Lockhart ‘Buck’ Rogers, and Herbert Laitinen.

Award recipients are honored for enhancing the personal and professional development of students in the study of analytical chemistry in one or more of the following ways:

• Authorship of an influential textbook for an analytical chemistry course;
• Design and implementation of a successful new approach to teaching analytical chemistry;
• Stimulation through teaching or research mentorship a significant number of students to become analytical chemists;
• Development and publication of innovative experiments;
• Design of improved equipment for teaching labs;
• Publication of widely quoted articles on teaching analytical chemistry.

Potts taught in the Chemistry Department at Gustavus Adolphus College from 1972 until his retirement in 2008. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

“Larry’s courses prepared me extremely well for graduate school and scientific research. I still routinely draw on what he taught me,” said Jeff Dahlseid ’90, an Associate Professor of Biochemistry at Gustavus and a former student and colleague of Potts. “This is a great honor for him, to be recognized among the giants in education in analytical chemistry, and Larry deserves it.”

“The number of students who have passed through Larry’s hands and turned into very successful, respected analytical chemists was undoubtedly a significant factor in his nomination,” added Assistant Professor of Analytical Chemistry Dwight Stoll.

Potts will receive the award at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society, on Aug.  22-26 in Boston.