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Joe Francisco and Phil Fuchs nominated as designated professors
Committees of their peers nominated the designated professors, which were approved by trustees.
"The professors we are honoring have established solid reputations in chemistry an area that has rich traditions at Purdue," said Provost Sally Mason. "From cancer research to the environment, computer modeling, their work reaches education and industry at multiple levels."
Those elevated to designated professorships include: Joseph S. Francisco as the William E. Moore Distinguished Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Science and Chemistry, and Philip L. Fuchs as the Richard B. Wetherill Professor of Chemistry.
Designated professorships honor individuals whose academic achievements have been internationally recognized or who have made a unique contribution to the university through scholarship, research, teaching or leadership functions. Purdue now has 125 designated professors.
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In 1993 he received the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and worked at the jet propulsion laboratory at California Institute of Technology. In 1998 he was appointed the Sterling A. Brown Visiting Professor at Williams College. In addition, he received the Alexander von Humboldt Award for U.S. Senior Sciences and spent 2003 in Germany and 2004 in Italy as visiting senior fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Bologna.
He is widely known for his work in computational atmospheric chemistry, with expertise in chemistry, atmospheric science and numerical modeling. His research focuses on basic studies in spectroscopy, kinetics and atmospheric pollutants.
Among his honors are a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholar Award, the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers Outstanding Teacher Award and the Percy Julian Award for outstanding contributions to fundamental research. He also is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a fellow of the American Physical Society.
Francisco received a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1977 from the University of Texas at Austin. He earned a doctorate in chemical physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983. His postdoctoral work included a research fellowship at Cambridge University and a Provost Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT.
The William E. Moore professorship is named for the first African-American to receive a doctorate from Purdue's chemistry department. Moore received his bachelor's degree from Southern University in 1963 and his doctorate from Purdue in physical biochemistry in 1967. He went on to hold faculty and administrat