Homer C. Weed and Emily Davis donated $1.1 million to the UA's chemistry department to establish an endowed chair and seminar series. Weed was captain of the track team at the UA during his senior year. This photograph was published in the UA yearbook in 1942. (Photo courtesy of Desert Yearbook)
A Nobel laureate will be on campus next week to help inaugarate a seminar series established through a gift to The University of Arizona chemistry department by a UA alumnus and his wife.
Emily Davis and Homer C. Weed, an alumnus of The University of Arizona, donated $1.1 million to the department last year. Part of the money established an endowed chair and the rest was earmarked for the creation of The Dr. Homer Weed and Dr. Emily D. Weed Seminar Series in Chemistry.
Nobel Laureate Elias James Corey, a chemistry and chemical biology professor at Harvard University, will give the inaugural address May 10.
Eugene A. Mash Jr., a UA chemistry professor, described Corey as a "preeminent synthetic chemist of our time."
Mash said the work of Corey, who has been a consultant with Pfizer and co-authored the recently released “Molecules and Medicine," has aided in the development of new medicines.
"He will discuss the development of powerful new catalysts that make possible construction of complex molecules," Mash said.
Davis and Weed provided the donation to the chemistry department to strengthen the education of students at the UA, in part by bringing prestigious scholars to the University.
Corey, who is also a Priestly Medal winner and received an honorable degree from the UA in 1991, is well known for advancing the field of chemistry, specifically in the area of organic synthesis – a highly complex field in chemistry.
His lecture undoubtedly will lure chemists, biochemists and physicians, but it is expected to also appeal to the general public, said Susan Richards, an assistant department head in the UA chemistry department.
Corey earned the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1990 “for his development of the theory and methodology of organic synthesis,” according to Nobel Prize's Web site. His research is expansive and involves studying molecular structures and researching diseases such as asthma and AIDS.
“It is a rare occasion that we get a Nobel Prize winner,” Richards said. “Of course for us in the department, it is the first time we have the funding to do something like this.”
Thanks, she said, to the Weeds.
Kansas-born Homer Clyde Weed’s family moved to Arizona during the Depression. He eventually earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the UA, where he ran track and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, an honors organization. Weed went on to complete a doctorate in physical chemistry from Ohio State University.
Weed began working as a physical chemist and geochemist for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1957 and retired in 1991. He died in February 2005.
Alabama-born Emily Weed attended Vanderbilt University and Ohio State University, where she earned a doctorate in inorganic chemistry. She also studied chemistry and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi. She died in June 2005.
“The Weeds wanted us to enrich our program,” Richards said. “They basically want to educate and to perpetuate science – good quality science."