Recent News

2023:

Our 61st annual Edward Mack Jr. Award Lecturer is Dr. Raychelle Burks from American University!

“Lunch-and-Learn” Technical Research Talk: March 23rd @ 12:00 PM in CBEC 120.

General Talk on Broader Topics in Science: March 23rd @ 4:10 PM in Evans 1008.

About Edward Mack, Jr.

Professor Edward Mack, Jr. was a long time faculty member of The Ohio State University’s Department of Chemistry. After 14 years as chairman, he resigned in October, 1955, to be devoted full time to teaching and research. Not long thereafter, his friends and former students learned of his death in June, 1956. Professor Mack became a member of the Ohio State faculty in 1919 and immediately began to take a personal interest in graduate students. He was their continued advocate, aiding his students through difficult years by soliciting grants from many companies and businesses. In several cases, he even took funds out of his own pocket for their support. Professor Mack was entirely dedicated to his graduate students, both scientifically and personally. In this spirit, the graduate students are responsible for every aspect of the Mack Award.

Unlike many seminar series, the Mack Award is planned entirely by graduate students and is a lecture series especially for graduate students. Graduate Students participate in the Mack Memorial Award by serving on the Mack Award committee, which is responsible for organizing every aspect of the speaker’s trip, including the well-attended Mack Award banquet dinner, which is held the first evening of this two-day event. Those not serving on the Mack committee nominate individuals and vote for the Mack Award recipient and, of course, attend the seminars and banquet.

The Edward Mack, Jr., Memorial Award began in 1963 with Dr. George Hammond as OSU’s first Mack lecturer. Since its inception, the Mack Award has been well supported by the OSU community.

The seminars are conducted formally, and all faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to attend. The first lecture is usually a broad topics seminar, one that will be most accessible to all chemistry graduate students. The evening of the first lecture holds the annual Mack Banquet in which participants attend at reduced admission. The second lecture is more technical, with a greater emphasis on the impact of the recipient’s current research.