ECU’s Gemperline earns distinguished professorship

(Sept. 20, 2001)   —   Dr. Paul J. Gemperline, an East Carolina University chemistry professor, has been named the 2001 Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor.

In announcing the award, Dr. Keats Sparrow, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said the recognition of Distinguished Professor is one of the highest honors given to a member of the faculty. Sparrow said Gemperline has been active with undergraduate and graduate courses and has inspired countless students to his own standards of excellence. He joined ECU in 1982. He is the author of over forty journal articles, two chapters in books, two conference proceedings, and two book and software reviews. Nine of his journal articles have been cited a total of 500 times by other scholars and researchers. While at ECU, Gemperline has received over a million dollars in research funding for nearly 50 different projects. His funding sources include private industry, government agencies such as the N.C. Board of Science and Technology, and the National Science Foundation. He has also served on the editorial boards for numerous scholarly journals including the post of North American editor of the “Journal of Chemometrics” from 1996 to 2001. Gemperline is a member of the American Chemical Society’s Analytical Chemistry Division and Computers Division, the Society for Applied Spectroscopy, the Sigma Xi and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies, and the International Chemometrics Society.

The Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professorship is a lifetime honor that includes a cash award and additional support for research activities, conferences and presentations. ECU will pay tribute to Gemperline’s work at a public program at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 25 in the auditorium of the Jenkins Fine Arts Center. The program will include a lecture by Dr. Steven D. Brown, a professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Delaware. Brown’s research interests include the application of computers to chemical analysis.

A reception will follow in the Gray Art Gallery. The public is invited.