Alumni Focus

Dr. Helen James-Lundak

My memories center around the people at UNL. Professors Larson and Schultz greatly influenced my career choice. Professor Broman was my graduate advisor and encouraged me to teach college chemistry. The graduate students during that time were a close group of friends. It was wonderful to meet so many of them again at the chemistry reunion in the spring of 2011.

Dr. Lawrence Albright

Lawrence Albright retired from Missouri Southern State University in 2006 after 37 years as a professor. Lawrence completed his Ph.D. at UNL from 1964-1969 under Professor Henry Holtzclaw. Lawrence came to UNL from Northwest Missouri State University:

"One of my instructors (Bob Henney) was teaching [at UNL] to make some money to finance returning to full time graduate study. He invited several of us to come up one weekend to look the department over. The result of the visit was my attending UNL and becoming a lifelong Husker fan."

Dr. Charles H. Geisler

Charles Geisler completed his Ph.D. at UNL from 1956-1961 under Professor J.E. Taylor and was a Samuel Avery Memorial Fellow from 1959-1960. Charles studied the mechanisms of the hydrolysis of diazomalonate ion during his time at UNL.

He remembers:
"I was one of the few graduate students who had windows down in the research labs of Avery Laboratory!"

Dr. James E. Lohr

Dr. Lohr earned his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from UNL in 1965. Dr. Lohr contributed to research involving surface interactions and influences on surface molecules for many years as a graduate student, post-doctoral researcher, and in industry. Dr. Lohr is also a native Nebraskan.

Dr. Kerry A. Clark

Dr. Kerry A. Clark received her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 1996 and her Ph.D in 2001 from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln under advisor Professor Adrian George. She worked in Dr. George's lab, as a synthetic inorganic chemist, putting organic ligands around metal centers of iron, tin and ruthenium. Her thesis was titled: "Synthesis and Characterization of Stable Fe(IV), Sn(IV) and Ru(IV) Thiatrane Complexes".

Dr. Bill McLaughlin

Former UNL professor and graduate student Dr. Bill McLaughlin first started teaching chemistry at the high school level in 1969. In the 1980s, Dr. McLaughlin came to UNL to pursue a PhD in analytical chemistry. After graduating, Dr. McLaughlin took a teaching position in Missouri, but through an unusual twist of events ended up accepting a one semester visiting professor slot here at UNL.

Dr. Sarah Petitto

After completing a B.S. in chemistry with a concentration in environmental studies from Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York, Dr. Sarah Petitto came to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to pursue a PhD in Physical Surface Chemistry and studied under Dr. Marjorie Langell. Dr. Petitto was initially drawn to the strength of the department's physical-analytical chemistry divisions, in which there were several faculty members she wanted to work with.

Dr. MariJean Eggen

Dr.MariJean Eggen, who received her B.S. in Chemistry from North Dakota State University in 1991 and her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln in 1996. Her Post-Doctoral Research associate work was done at the University of Kansas Medicinal Chemistry Department from 1997-2000. She was one of Dr.David Berkowitz's first graduate students and the first student working in the area of hydrolytically stable phosphate analogues. Her thesis title was "Synthesis of (β, β-difluoromethylene)phosphate analogs of phosphosugars and phospho-amino acids."