Chemistry Department News

  
03 March 2008    Robinson Chosen to Receive Herty Medal

An innovative chemist, Charles Holmes Herty (1867-1938) made many contributions to both chemistry and the US society in general. Furthermore, Herty was a University of Georgia chemistry professor as well as the South's first college football coach. Herty Field on North Campus is, of course, named in honor of (Coach) Herty. Herty also served as ACS President in 1915 and 1916.

The Charles H. Herty Medal is a beautiful gold medallion awarded by the Georgia Section of the ACS. The Herty Medal is the first multi-state regional chemistry award as well as the third oldest unrestricted national or regional chemistry award presented annually by ACS or any of its units. The purpose of the award is to give public recognition to the work and service of outstanding chemistry practitioners (in an eleven southeastern state region) who have contributed significantly to their chosen field.

Gregory H. Robinson, Franklin Professor of Chemistry at the University of Goergia, is the winner of the 2008 Charles Holmes Herty Medal. The award is given annually by the ACS Georgia Section to recognize the work and service of an outstanding chemist from the southeastern region of the U.S.

Robinson has made seminal contributions to the areas of main group chemistry and transition-metal chemistry that have forced chemists to reconsider traditional theories of molecular structure and bonding. He has also mentored countless students in the Southeast, particularly underrepresented minority students, and has served in advisory roles at ACS, the National Science Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.

Robinson received the award during the Georgia Section's Hert Awards Banquet in Atlanta on March 27. His talk was titled "Counterintuitive Chemistry: An Organometallic Excursion."