Bright Receives Chemical Society’s Buck-Whitney Award

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Frank V. Bright, professor of chemistry at UB, has been awarded the Buck-Whitney Award of the Eastern New York section of the American Chemical Society (ACS) for 1999.

The award, given to a resident of North America who has made "outstanding contributions to chemistry," seeks to encourage and promote original research, as well as to identify chemists whose work should be brought to national attention. It will be presented to Bright during a banquet to be held Nov. 17 in Albany.

The Buck-Whitney Medal was created to commemorate two distinguished members of the Eastern New York section, Johannes S. Buck (1895-1956), former associate research director of the Sterling-Winthrop Research Institute, and Willis A. Whitney (1886-1958), founder of the General Electric Research Laboratory.

Bright, who earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Redlands, Redlands, Calif., in 1982, earned his doctorate in chemistry in 1985 from Oklahoma State University. He was a postdoctoral fellow from 1985-87 at Indiana University, joining the UB faculty in 1987 as an assistant professor.

Bright's research interests are in the area of biomolecule dynamics at and in surfaces, developing new-generation biosensors, supercritical fluid science and technology, and advanced laser-based chemical instrumentation.

The author of more than 150 scientific publications, Bright is being recognized for his research group's efforts in developing a molecular-level understanding of solvation processes in supercritical fluids, controlling and understanding biomolecule function within restricted spaces, and the development of advanced biosensors for simultaneous quantification of biologically relevant analytes in real time. This research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, the Department of Energy and several private industries.

Bright resides in Amherst.