For
release: May 21, 2007
Contacts:
R.S. Houk, Chemical and Biological Sciences, 515-294-9462
Breehan Gerleman Lucchesi , Public Affairs, 515-294-9750
AMES LABORATORY’S HOUK
RECEIVES ISU GRADUATE FACULTY AWARD
AMES, Iowa—Sam Houk, senior chemist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, has been named the recipient of the 2007 Iowa State University Margaret Ellen White Graduate Faculty Award. Houk, who is also a professor of chemistry at Iowa State University, will receive the award at the ISU convocation on Sept. 10.
The Margaret Ellen White Graduate Faculty Award recognizes superior performance by a member of the graduate faculty, who serves as a mentor and who enriches the student-professor relationship through support and attention to detail, enabling students to finish their work in a timely and scholarly manner. The award was established in 1985 by White, a graduate and staff member of ISU’s former College of Home Economics, to show her appreciation to graduate faculty for their guidance and encouragement of graduate students.
Houk was born in New Castle, Penn., and received a B.S. degree in Secondary Education from Slippery Rock State College in 1974. He received a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Iowa State University in 1980, where he worked with Velmer A. Fassel and Harry J. Svec. He has been on the faculty at Iowa State University since 1981 and has a concurrent appointment at the Ames Laboratory.
His long-term interests are in inorganic analysis by mass spectrometry, particularly inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), electrospray MS, and the combination of these methods with chromatographic and electrophoretic separations for measuring elemental speciation. He built the first ICP-MS device and has won the following awards: American Chemical Society Award in Chemical Instrumentation (1993), the Lester W. Struck Award (Society for Applied Spectroscopy, 1986), the Haler Award (Society for Analytical Chemistry of Pittsburgh & Fissions, 1993), the Wilkinson Teaching Award (Iowa State, 1993), the Research Excellence Award from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Iowa State, 2000), and the Anaheim Award (ACS Detroit Section, 2000).
Houk has published 149 papers and has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry and Petrochemical Act Part B, the two major journals in atomic spectroscopy. Houk has also recently been studying electrospray ionization MS for analysis and characterization of biomolecules, including ion mobility, ion traps and time-of-flight MS.
Ames Laboratory, celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2007, is operated for the Department of Energy by Iowa State University. The Lab conducts research into various areas of national concern, including the synthesis and study of new materials, energy resources, high-speed computer design, and environmental cleanup and restoration.
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