Fred M. Garland Memorial Lecture and Awards Ceremony

25th Annual Fred M. Garland Memorial Lecture, April 14, 2005, Dr. John M. White, Robert A. Welch Chair in Chemistry at The University of Texas at Austin

The Fred M. Garland Memorial Lecture and Awards Ceremony is an annual Springtime event sponsored by the Chemistry Department at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Fred M. Garland was the chemistry department chairman from 1950-75. A nationally recognized chemistry scholar is invited to present a lecture to an undergraduate audience over a current topic of interest. Attendance generally exceeds 100 students, faculty, and staff. Three of the Garland lecturers have been recent Nobel Prize Recipients and other Garland Lecturers have received national acclaim from the American Chemical Society, the National Academy of Sciences, and other prestigious societies. The event also includes the recognition of the Fred M. Garland Scholarship Recipient (an undergraduate chemistry major who will begin his/her senior year the following Fall Semester) and other students who have contributed to the strength and vitality of the department.

2005 Fred M. Garland Lecturer and Chemistry Faculty

The 2005 25^th Annual Fred M. Garland Lecture was presented by Dr. John M. White (center), Robert A. Welch Professor of Chemistry/Materials Science at the University of Texas at Austin. The chemistry faculty are left to right:  Jo A. Beran, Sajid Bashir, Mauro Castro, Nicholas Beller, John M. White, Alberto Olivares, Maribel Gonzalez-Garcia, John Thompson, and Ronald Marcotte. Thomas Hays and Apurba Bhattacharya are absent from the photo.

2004 Fred M. Garland Scholarship Recipient

John Thompson, Kate Edelman (recipient), Ronald Marcotte

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Fred M. Garland

Fred McKee Garland was born in Corsicana, Texas on March 16, 1912. Being educated in the Texas public schools, he graduated from Ft. Worth Polytechnic High School in 1929. He received the B.S. degree from Trinity University at Waxahachie in 1934, the M.S. degree in chemistry from Texas Tech University in 1936, and the Ph.D. degree in chemistry from The University of Texas at Austin in 1939. Dr. Garland was an assistant professor at Trinity University from 1939 to 1941 and a research chemist for Armour and Co., Chicago from 1941 to 1943. During World War II, he was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army, ultimately serving as the Executive Officer of the 314th General Hospital in Manila, the Philippines until the end of the war.

Rather than return to the cold winters of Chicago, Dr. Fred M. Garland joined the Texas A&I University faculty in 1946 at a salary of $3200/9 mon and retired in 1978 at a salary of $26,091/9 mon. For 25 years he served Texas A&I as chairman of the chemistry department and 16 years as the chairman of the health professions committee. Many of his students achieved advanced or professional degrees; by his own count, 16 PhD’s in chemistry and over 100 dentists and 100 physicians. But in his retirement letter to the president, "My most significant accomplishment has been the assembling of a very strong staff, perhaps the strongest on campus. The department is in good hands."

The chemistry faculty grew from two to seven, hiring 24 chemistry faculty, during his tenure as chairman. In addition, modern laboratory equipment and library holdings were added each year. Because of his persistence and leadership the department received American Chemical Society certification in 1972 which is still maintained. His commitment to the teaching profession was recognized in 1958 when he was one of six national finalists for the MCA Teaching Award and again in 1977 when he was honored with the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation Award for "distinguished teaching on the college level" in Texas.

Dr. Garland died in 1980, but his legend lives on. He "lived" chemistry through his teaching, his students, and his faculty. As one of his students in the mid-’50’s aptly described him, "He could teach chemistry to a door knob."

In 1977, the Fred M. Garland Endowment Fund was established for the purpose of annually recognizing an undergraduate chemistry major who has shown professional promise in his/her academic achievements and leadership qualities at Texas A&M University-Kingsville (formerly Texas A&I University). To date this endowment fund, which was built solely from the generous donations of former students and colleagues of Dr. Garland, totals in excess of $30 000.

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Fred M. Garland Lectureships

1981 William H. Glaze, The University of Texas at Dallas, "Applications of Chemistry in the Study of Drinking Water Supplies"

1982 Larry Kevan, The University of Houston, "Chemical Applications of Electron Spin Echoes"

1983 Allen J. Bard, The University of Texas at Austin, "Solar Energy Conversion through Photochemistry at Semiconductors"

1984 Andrew L. Ternay, Jr., The University of Texas at Arlington, "A Role for the Organic Chemist in Modern Chemistry–the Treatment of Mental Illness with Chemicals"

1985 Ralph A. Zingaro, Texas A&M University, "Selenium–A Schizophrenic Element"

1986 Henry J. Shine, Texas Tech University, "Learning How Molecules React by Using Heavy Atoms"

1987 W. Carl Lineberger, Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA), The University of Colorado, "Laser Probes of the Structure of Anions"

1988 J. J. Lagowski, The University of Texas at Austin, "The Future of Chemical Education"

1989 Raymond B. Seymour, University of Southern Mississippi, "Modern Polymer Science"

1990 Kurt J. Irgolic, University of Graz, Austria, "Arsenic in the Environment"

1991 Gerald L. Robbins, Mobay Corporation, "The Chemist’s Role in Industry"

1992 Julia E. Lever, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, "How Molecules Cross Cell Membranes"

1993 Ronald Macfarlane, Texas A&M University, "Benchtop Chemistry Induced by Nuclear Fission"

1994 Richard E. Smalley, Rice University, "Buckyballs and the New Carbon-Based Nanotechnology"

1995 O. Stanley Fruchey, Hoechst-Celanese Corporation, "Polymers to Pharmaceuticals to Polymers, A Story of Serendipity and Technical Success"

1996 Darleane C. Hoffman, University of California, Berkeley, "One-Atom-At-A-Time Chemistry of the Heaviest Elements"

1997 Mario J. Molina, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "Stratospheric Ozone Depletion: A Global Problem"

1998 Jacqueline K. Barton, California Institute of Technology, "Travels Along the DNA Helix"

1999 J. Roger Hirl, President and CEO of Occidental Chemical, "Chemicals 2000:   Bringing on the Future"

2000 Neil Bartlett, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, "Noble Gas Chemistry"

2001 Daryle H. Busch, Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor, University of Kansas, 2000 President of the American Chemical Society, "Extreme Ligands for Extreme Purposes"

2002 Peter J. Stang, University of Utah, "Nanoscale Molecular Architecture:  Design and Self-assembly of Metallacyclic Polygons and Polyhedra via Coordination"

2003 John Conkling, Former Executive Director of the American Pyrotechnics Association, "Things That Go 'Boom" in the Night"

2004 Carl E. Wieman, Joint Institute of Laboratory Astrophysics, University of Colorado, Nobel Prize in Physics, 2001, "Bose-Einstein Condensate:  Quantum Weirdness at Lowest Temperature in the Universe"

2005 John M. White, Welch Professor of Chemistry, the University of Texas at Austin, "Chemical Catalysis:  Controlling Chemical Reactions for a Secure Energy Future"

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Fred M. Garland Award Recipients

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