(COLUMBUS)-- C. Bradley Moore, a renowned chemist at the University of California, Berkeley, and senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has been selected as the new Vice President for Research at Ohio State University.
The action came at today's university Board of Trustees' meeting. "As an esteemed chemist, Bradley Moore will be a key factor in our efforts to position Ohio State among the nation's top 10 teaching and research universities," said Dr. William E. Kirwan, Ohio State president. "He is a leading figure in this nation's research and academic communities, and he brings enormous stature to this very important position. He has precisely the skill and experience that we need at this time to help us extend the university's knowledge and expertise into the businesses and communities of the state of Ohio. We are all enormously pleased that Dr. Moore has accepted this position."
Moore, 60, is currently Director of the Chemical Sciences Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, one of the country's foremost research centers, as well as professor of chemistry at UC Berkeley. During his 29 years at Berkeley, he has served as chair of the Department of Chemistry and later dean of the College of Chemistry.
In 1986, Moore received the Department of Energy's prestigious E.O. Lawrence Memorial Award. That same year, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors a researcher can attain.
Members of the NAS, along with its sister organizations, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM), serve on national research panels to investigate and assess major scientific, technical and medical problems facing the country. Their findings often serve as the basis for scientific and technical legislation and regulation. Ohio State currently has three members of the NAS, seven members of the NAE, and one member of the IOM.
"Brad Moore, who is a world authority in his field of energy transfer and chemical reaction dynamics, will also hold an appointment in the department of chemistry," said Dr. Edward J. Ray, executive vice president and provost of Ohio State. "Brad is bringing his research laboratory and some of his research assistants with him so that he can continue his scholarly activity. His extraordinary record of scholarship and administrative experience has prepared Brad well for the leadership role he will play in advancing research activity at this great university."
Moore has held visiting scientist appointments at research centers and universities in Shanghai, P.R.C.; Okazaki, Japan, and Paris, France. He was awarded both a Sloan Foundation Fellowship in 1968 and a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 1969.
He was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Moore's research centers on fundamental chemical dynamics, including basic questions about how chemical bonds are made and broken. While this work has ramifications for all of chemistry, it is particularly relevant to studies of the chemistry of combustion. His research group is studying the fundamental reactions occurring when energy is either added to or removed from molecular environments. By comparing the different reactions of molecules when heated -- either by a simple flame or by laser beam, both of which bring energy into the molecule -- researchers can learn about the behavior of basic chemical bonds.
Understanding the effects energy has on these bonds might enable researchers to design fuels for better combustion. It may be possible to tailor specific reactions within molecules to gain the maximum efficiency from a gallon of fuel.
He has published or co-authored nearly 250 scholarly papers and has served as editor and associate editor of two professional journals. He has led research projects supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy and more than a half-dozen private corporations.
In his role as vice president for research, Moore will provide leadership to research activities at the university and to building partnerships with off-campus partners, principally business and government agencies, to share the fruits of faculty research with others in meaningful ways.
Dr. Terry Miller, the Ohio Eminent Scholar and professor of chemistry who was chair of the search committee which selected Moore, said, "We looked at roughly 100 candidates and, from the search committee's point of view, nobody's combination of qualifications in several areas came even close to Brad's.
"His credentials as a research scientist are truly impeccable. In terms of administrative experience, he has serve both as a college dean and a department head at Berkeley, and head of an important division at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory."
Moore's selection ends a search that began last fall. After the sudden death in 1998 of then-Vice President for Research Edward Hayes, William Baeslack, a former associate dean in the College of Engineering, served as interim vice president until he accepted a job as dean of engineering at his alma mater, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Keith E. Alley, professor of oral biology, has served as interim vice president since then. He will continue in that role until Moore assumes his duties on a half-time transitional basis April 1 and a full-time basis on July 1, 2000.
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Contact: Alayne Parson, 614-292-5881.