2016 Distinguished Alumni Awards

Dr. Sung Wan Kim, PhD '69
Dr. Jaqueline L. Kiplinger, PhD '96
Dr. Milton L. Lee, BA '71
Dr. James M. Sugihara, PhD '47

On Monday, April 18th, the Department of Chemistry honored four former students as our 2016 Distinguished Alumni.

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Sung Wan Kim received his PhD in Physical Chemistry with Professor Henry Eyring in 1969. He is currently a Distinguished Professor of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry and a Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering at the U. He was Director of the Center for Controlled Chemical Delivery from 1985-2006. Dr. Kim is a pioneer in drug delivery research focused on hydrogels, biodegradable drug conjugates, self-regulating drug delivery and stimuli sensitive polymers.

Jaqueline L. Kiplinger obtained her PhD in Organometallic Fluorocarbon Chemistry at the University of Utah with Professor Tom Richmond in 1996. She is now a Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she has worked since starting as a postdoctoral fellow in 1999. She is recognized as a pioneer in uranium and thorium chemistry, and has received numerous awards for her research, service, and mentorship.

Milton L. Lee received his B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Utah in 1971. He attended graduate school at Indiana University, earning his PhD with Professor Milos Novotny in 1975. In 1976, he joined the faculty at BYU, where he is now the H. Tracy Hall Professor of Chemistry. He specializes in microseparation techniques, column technology for microseparations, and instrumentation for capillary separations and high performance separations-mass spectrometry.

James M. Sugihara received the first PhD ever awarded by the University of Utah in 1947. In 1946, Sugihara’s 84-page Ph.D. dissertation on “The Reactions of Mercaptans on Sucrose and Molasses,” included only three approval signatures: Walter D. Bonner, Lloyd E. Malm and Elton L. Quinn. He was a member of the faculty until 1964, when he accepted a professorship at North Dakota State University, where he served as dean of the College of Science and Mathematics. He was named Dean of the Graduate School and Director of Research in 1974. In 1998, he was awarded an honorary doctorate at NDSU and retired as Professor Emeritus.