Royce W. Murray

Royce W. Murray
PhD
Native name Royce W. Murray
Born (1937-01-09) January 9, 1937
Birmingham Alabama
Education

B.S. Chemistry, Birmingham Southern College, (1957)

Ph.D. Northwestern University (1960)
Alma mater Birmingham Southern College
Scientific career
Institutions University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Royce W. Murray (born January 9, 1937) is an American chemist and chemistry professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests are focused on electrochemistry, molecular designs, and sensors.[1] He has had a remarkable career with over 440 publications in analytical, physical, inorganic, and materials chemistry, and has trained 72 Ph.D students, 16 master’s students, and 58 postdoctoral fellows, 45 of whom have gone on to university faculty positions.[1] Roughly 20% of past Murray Ph.D. students and 40% of his postdoctoral fellows have gone on into academics, for a total of 33 in academic positions. Through his influence on his associates and students, Royce’s excellence as an educator and mentor in the chemical sciences has enhanced education at universities and laboratories other than UNC. He has received numerous awards during his five decades of work. Most recently, the American Chemical Society recognized him as an ACS Fellow (2012).[1] Currently, he holds three patents related to surface-modified electrodes.[2]

    Biography

    Royce W. Murray grew up in Birmingham, Alabama on January 9, 1937. He was an excellent student, graduating early from high school, Birmingham Southern College and graduate school in Northwestern University. He worked at his father's shop, who was an electrician for Alabama Power Company. Murray began attaining knowledge of electrical meters, generators, and lathes, wiring diagrams, and insulating materials.[3] He would also follow his father to a scrapyard in Birmingham and learning about scrap metal from the War, 50-call ammo, and gunpowder, foreshadowing his career in electrochemistry.

    Murray graduated Birmingham Southern College, where he graduated cum laude in chemistry and continued his education in graduate school in chemistry at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. His college professors were instrumental in his education path, changing his early college life of being in the pre-ministerial program to majoring in chemistry. In graduate school, Royce had the opportunity to work with two of the greats in electrochemistry, Richard Bowers and Don DeFord, and began tinkering with chronoamperometry and chronopotentiometry. He became known as "analogue Murray", as he became an expert at building electrochemical equipment from the ground up, which he now requires his graduate students to do so as well. Murray graduated from Northwestern in three years, beginning his career as an instructor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[4]

    Royce was promoted from Instructor to Assistant Professor in 1961 and Associate Professor in 1966. At roughly the same time as his promotion to Full Professor (1969), he was made an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow. In 1980, he was named a Kenan Professor of Chemistry and, in 1996, a Kenan Professor of Applied and Materials Sciences.[4][5]

    Contributions

    In 1967, Murray was made Building Committee Chair for construction of the new Kenan Laboratories of Chemistry. This initial service role led him to the position of Acting Chair and Vice Chair of the UNC Chemistry Department in the early 1970s, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and then on to Chair of the Department in the early 1980s. His service to UNC then expanded beyond the boundaries of the Department, as witnessed by his roles as Chair, Division of Basic and Applied Natural Sciences; Chair, Curriculum in Applied and Materials Sciences; and Vice Chair, Division of Basic and Applied Natural Sciences. He was also the Chair, Task Force for Planning the Science Complex at UNC, a role that is quite similar in nature to his role in 1967 with the Kenan buildings.[5]

    Service to the chemistry community has been high on Royce’s list of priorities. He served as the National Science Foundation’s first “rotator” in the Chemistry Division in the early 1970s and has been a key participant in NSF activities ever since. In addition, Royce has been involved with the American Chemical Society in numerous roles: Subcommittee on Graduate Level Analytical Chemistry Examination, Division of Chemical Education (1964-74, Chair, 1970-74); Division of Analytical Chemistry, Alternate Councilor (1978-79), Councilor (1980-82); Canvassing Committee, ACS National Awards (1984-86); Advisory Board, Analytical Chemistry (1979- 1981); Program Coordinator, Division of Analytical Chemistry (1985-1989); Committee on Publications (1985-90); Executive Committee, Division of Analytical Chemistry (1991-present). His most familiar public role is Editor-in-Chief of Analytical Chemistry (1991-2011).[5]

    He attained The Thomas Jefferson Award at UNC (2001), is the ultimate award in the North Carolina system of higher education. In recognition of his efforts, the State of North Carolina presented Royce with the North Carolina Award in Science in November 2001.[5]

    Honors and awards

    Dr. Murray has received numerous awards:[1]

    • Distinguished North Carolina Chemist Award of the NC Institute of Chemists, (1987)
    • Fellow, American Institute of Chemists, (1986)
    • The Electrochemical Society Carl Wagner Memorial Award, (1987)
    • Charles N. Reilley Award of Society for Electroanalytical Chemistry, (1988)
    • Electrochemical Group Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, London, (1989)
    • Eleventh North Carolina ACS Section Distinguished Speaker Award, (1989)
    • ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Award in Electrochemistry, (1990)
    • ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry, (Fisher Award) (1991)
    • Member, National Academy of Sciences, elected (1991)
    • Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, elected (1992)
    • Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, elected (1992)
    • Eastern Analytical Symposium Award in the Fields of Analytical Chemistry, (1995)
    • Breyer Medal, Electrochemistry Division, Royal Australian Chemical Institute, (1997)
    • Olin Palladium Medal, The Electrochemical Society, (1997)
    • Thomas Jefferson Award, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (2001)
    • North Carolina Award for Science, (2001)
    • Oesper Award, (2002)
    • Luigi Galvani Medal of the Italian Chemical Society, 2004
    • Southern Chemist Award, Memphis Section of ACS, (2008)
    • ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Analytical Chemistry, (2010)

    References

    1. 1 2 3 4 sahl@email.unc.edu, Chemistry Webmaster,. "Department of Chemistry Royce Murray". www.chem.unc.edu. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
    2. ↑ "G. F. Smith Memorial Lecturer 2002-03 - Royce W. Murray | Chemistry at Illinois". chemistry.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
    3. ↑ Kounaves, Samuel. "Memories - Royce W. Murray". electroanalytical.org. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
    4. 1 2 Kounaves, Samuel. "Memories - Royce W. Murray". electroanalytical.org. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
    5. 1 2 3 4 "Royce W. Murray". The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. 105 (37): 8640–8641. doi:10.1021/jp0125707.
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