Janet Osteryoung
received her B.A. degree from Swarthmore College in 1961 and her Ph.D.
degree under the direction of Fred C. Anson at the California Institute
of Technology in 1967. She began her academic career in 1967 as an
Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Montana State University.
She soon moved to Colorado State University, where she remained for a decade,
moving up through the ranks in the Department of Civil Engineering and
Microbiology. From 1977 to 1978 she served as the Program Director
for Chemical Analysis at the National Science Foundation, a position that
would presage her current involvement with that organization. In
1979 she moved to the Department of Chemistry at the State University of
New York at Buffalo as an Associate Professor, and was promoted to Full
Professor in 1982. In 1992, she moved to the Chemistry Department
at North Carolina State University as Head. She is currently Director
of the Chemistry Division at the National Science Foundation, where she
has served since 1994.
Osteryoung's research interests
range from electroanalytical chemistry to physical studies of polyelectrolyte
systems. She is perhaps best known for her many contributions to the theory
and practice of pulse and square wave polarography, but she has made important
contributions in a number of related areas. For example, she is a
recognized expert in the determination of low levels of pesticides, carcinogens
and pharmaceuticals in a variety of media. Particularly important
are her contributions to the development of sound mathematical theory to
optimize the fitting of theory to experimental electrochemical data, and
to the use of various pulse voltammetric techniques in the study of electrochemical
mechanisms. More recently, she has contributed significantly to the
understanding of electrostatics in polyelectrolyte systems through the
application of electrochemical and NMR techniques and theory. She
has organized many symposia, written over 200 publications and given more
than 350 presentations. She also co-authored a general chemistry
text.
Dr. Osteryoung
has received many honors, including National Science Foundation, Guggenheim
and Fulbright Fellowships, the ANACHEM Award of the Association of Analytical
Chemists, and she was the 1998 recipient of the Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry
Award from the SACP (Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh).
In 1987 she was awarded the Garvin Medal of the American Chemical Society,
and in 1996 she won the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Award in Electrochemistry.
She has served on several editorial boards, as Associate Editor of Electrochimica
Acta, and as Chair of the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. She
is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
a Founding Member of the Society of Electroanalytical Chemistry, and served
as President of that Society in 1986.[C&EN
staff photo - Reprinted with permission from C&EN, 11/7/94,
72(45), p15. Copyright 1994 American Chemical Society]
