By Bernie DeGroat
News and Information Services
Raoul Kopelman, professor of chemistry and adjunct professor of physics, will receive the 1993 Margaret and Herman Sokol Faculty Award for his contributions to graduate education and research.
The award will be presented at a public lecture given by Kopelman at 4 p.m. Thursday (Oct. 14) in Room 1400, Willard Henry Dow Laboratory. John H. D’Arms, vice provost for academic affairs and dean of the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies, and Margaret Sokol will pre-sent the award.
Kopelman, who has taught at the U-M since 1966, is renowned for his work in solid-state spectroscopy and chemical reaction kinetics, and for his collaborative research efforts with students.
“Dr. Kopelman’s dedication and enthusiasm in research have been inspirational to the graduate students who have been associated with him in the laboratory and in the classroom,” said Robert L. Kuczkowski, professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry.
“It is of particular significance that several of his former Ph.D. students presently hold important, highly visible academic and industrial research positions worldwide, and that they continue to engage in first-class, original research.”
Administered by the Graduate School, the $25,000 Sokol Award is given annually to a tenured faculty member in astronomy, chemistry, geological sciences, math, physics or biology.
“The University owes an immense debt of gratitude to Margaret Sokol for her generous support and personal encouragement of both faculty and students in these critical disciplines,” D’Arms said.
Margaret Sokol and her late husband Herman, who graduated from U-M in 1940 with a master’s degree in chemistry, first established an annual fellowship for graduate students in chemistry in 1983. After Herman Sokol’s death in 1985, Margaret Sokol established additional awards to assist students and faculty in the sciences.
