Westmont Chemistry Professor Receives National Research Award

Chemistry Professor Stanley Edward Anderson has been selected for a National Research Council Senior Research Associateship award, which has allowed him to conduct studies at the University of California Santa Barbara during a sabbatical.

Working with UCSB Chemistry Professor Michael T. Bowers, Anderson is analyzing molecular structures using ion chromatography/mass spectrometry techniques perfected by the Bowers Group.

Anderson is examining small amounts of POSS – Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane – molecules, which can be used as building blocks of special high performance polymers of interest to the Air Force for rocket and space applications.

POSS technology is a rapidly developing area of material science. Polymers containing POSS are “super-plastics,” silicon-based and having ceramic-like material characteristics that provide thermal stability, flame retardation, abrasion resistance and greater strength than ordinary plastics.

The associateship is an internationally recognized award sponsored by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. About 800 scientists and engineers receive the award each year; 200 of which are given to senior doctoral-level scientists like Anderson to work with a variety of government agencies like NASA, National Institutes of Health, Office of Naval Research, etc. The POSS project is sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and Air Force Research Laboratory’s Propulsion Directorate at Edwards Air Force Base.

Anderson received his B.S. in chemistry at Wheaton College and a Ph.D. in inorganic and physical chemistry at the University of Illinois. He has been with the Westmont faculty since 1978.

He has received research grants from and collaborated with the AFOSR, American Chemical Society, Petroleum Research Fund, Research Corporation and the National Science Foundation.

His published works include papers on organometallic chemistry, electrochemistry, nuclear magnetic resonance of solid materials, and atmospheric ozone chemistry, many of which have Westmont student co-authors. A recent paper on POSS structure was published in April 2003 in the International Journal of Mass Spectrometry.

For more information, call the public affairs office at 565-6051 or e-mail pubaffairs@westmont.edu.