Professor James H. Crowdle was an outstanding member of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Canisius University for over forty years, most of which he served as Department Chair. He was proud of having taught over 10,000 classroom students, freshman through graduate level, and he directed dozens of graduate research theses. He was simultaneously a powerful force in the creation of many campus-wide institutions; he co-founded The Griffin and he founded the DiGamma Honor Society.
This award was conceived shortly after Dr. Crowdle’s retirement and death in 1966. Its purpose is to recognize the achievements of the best graduates of this department and to honor the memory of one of our most respected colleagues. Faculty and students of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry select awardees based on their significant contributions to the fields of chemistry or biochemistry.
Crowdle Award Recipients:
2016
Dr. David Nalewajek (´74)
(PhD, University at Buffalo ´78)
Honeywell International Inc., Buffalo. Honored for his research efforts in fluorine chemistry, especially the development of environmentally safer fluorocarbons.
2009
Dr. Gerald Zon (´67)
(PhD, Princeton University ´71)
Director of Business Development, TriLink BioTechnologies. Honored for his research efforts that led to the development of antisense agents, oligonucleotides that bind to mRNA and regulate gene expression, as a method of attacking diseases.
2006
Professor David G. Hangauer (´74)
(PhD, University at Buffalo ´80)
Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemistry, University at Buffalo. Honored for his work on the development of protein kinase inhibitors as anti-cancer drugs.
1999
Professor Gerald Wilemski (´68)
(PhD, Yale University ´72)
Professor, Department of Physics, Missouri University of Science and Technology. Honored for his use of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics in the study of a wide variety of chemical systems.
1995
Professor William E. Geiger Jr. (´65)
(PhD, Cornell ´69)
Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemistry, University of Vermont. Honored for his research in understanding the mechanisms involved in the electrochemical synthesis of molecular complexes.
1990
Professor Bruno Zwolinski (´41)
(PhD, Princeton ´47)
Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University. Honored for his leadership in measuring, gathering, evaluating and disseminating critical thermodynamic properties, as well as his contributions to the theory of chemical kinetics.
1982
Professor Thomas J. Dougherty (´55)
(PhD, Ohio State ´59)
Chief Emeritus, Photodynamic Therapy Center, Professor of Oncology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Honored for his studies of the concentration of dyes in tumorous tissues and his subsequent development of photodynamic therapy for cancer patients.
1976
Professor Robert H. Schuler (´46)
(PhD, Notre Dame ´49)
Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame. Honored for his fundamental research in the kinetics of radiation–induced reactions via ESR and other forms of spectroscopy.
1973
Professor Robert L. Kuczkowski (´60)
(PhD, Harvard ´64)
Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan. Honored for his application of microwave spectroscopy to the study of reaction mechanisms, in particular applying Fourier transform microwave methods to the study of van der Waals complexes.
1970
Professor Paul G. Gassman (´57)
(PhD, Cornell ´60)
Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota. Honored for his research in the chemistry of strained ring compounds. He served as president of the American Chemical Society was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.