News Briefs

Dr. Ernest L. Eliel, William R. Kenan Jr. professor emeritus of chemistry at UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, received an honorary doctorate in chemical science from the University of Havana, his alma mater, in October.

A native of Cologne, Eliel fled Nazi Germany in 1938, arriving in Cuba alone in 1941 at age 19. He received the equivalent of a master’s degree from the University of Havana in 1946.

Eliel received his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1948, and went on to become an internationally recognized scholar of the stereochemistry of organic compounds and author of a widely used textbook on the subject. He taught at the University of Notre Dame for 24 years and at UNC for 21 years (1972-93).

A member of the National Academy of Sciences, recipient of three national teaching awards and a former president of the American Chemical Society, Eliel won the society’s highest award, the Priestley Medal, in 1996.

Eliel also has received honorary degrees from Duke University (1983), the University of Notre Dame (1990) and Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj, Romania (1993).

During the last eight years, Eliel has worked to strengthen relations between Cuban and U.S. chemical scientists.

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Dr. Jeffrey S. Johnson, assistant professor of chemistry at UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, has received a 2004 Lilly Grantee Award in Organic Chemistry.

The honor, conferred annually by pharmaceutical manufacturer Eli Lilly and Co., recognizes emerging leaders in the field.

A synthetic organic chemist, Johnson is involved in developing new efficient methods for the preparation of complex organic molecules. He is one of three organic chemists nationwide to receive the honor this year. The award includes a two-year, $100,000 unrestricted research grant.

Johnson has a doctorate in organic chemistry from Harvard University. Before joining the UNC faculty in 2001, he was a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at Berkeley. Previous honors include the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the 3M Nontenured Faculty Award, the Johnson and Johnson Focused Giving Award and the UNC Junior Faculty Development Award.

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Dr. Deil S. Wright, Alumni distinguished professor of political science and public administration, received two recognitions from the American Political Science Association at its fall meeting in Chicago.

He received the Herbert Kaufman Award for co-authoring the best paper in public administration, which focused on state agencies’ extensive use of contracting out for services with nonprofit and for profit organizations.

Wright also was honored when the association’s Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations Section named its best paper competition the Deil S. Wright Award.

Wright has a 50-year career in teaching and scholarly writing in public administration, as well as federalism and intergovernmental relations. He has taught at UNC since 1967.

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College of Arts and Sciences contact: Dee Reid, (919) 843-6339 or deereid@unc.edu