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November 5, 2003
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY RECOGNIZES OSWEGO CHEMIST
OSWEGO -- Dr. Ray O'Donnell, a member of the
chemistry department at SUNY Oswego, was recently recognized at a
dinner meeting of the Syracuse Section of the American Chemical Society
for his 50-year members in the Society.
For 39 of those years he has been very active in
many local, regional and national American Chemical Society activities.
During his 36 years as adviser, the SUNY Oswego Student Affiliate
received many awards. He continues to serve as a member of the
executive committee of the Syracuse Section.
He was elected chairman of the Syracuse Section in
1974 and served as its councilor from 1985 to 1994. While serving as
councilor, he was appointed to Project SEED (1986-95), where he chaired
the finance and planning subcommittee (1988-95) and was appointed to
the Committee on Professional Relations (1986-94), where he
chaired the professional and career assistance subcommittee (1989-94).
While in governance with the American Chemical
Society, O'Donnell participated in the formation of the Career
Assistance Program and has been appointed and reappointed as a career
consultant since 1990. He has provided local section career assistance
since the beginning of the local section program in 1996. He developed
the American Chemical Society workshop on academic jobs and has
presented this workshop at every national meeting since 2001. He has
been requested to conduct the "Managing an Effective Job Search"
workshop over 40 times at locations all over the country.
O'Donnell has received a number of awards during his
career, including being named project director for two National Science
Foundation-CCSS programs in 1970 and 1971, senior research fellow with
U.S. Defense Department in 1985 and 1993, senior staff scientist for
the Battelle/Saudi Arabian Research Institute in 1987, and visiting
faculty at Rochester Institute of Technology (1983), University of
Pittsburgh (1987) and University of Wisconsin (2000). He received the
Syracuse Section Award in 1990.
At SUNY Oswego he coordinated the chemistry
department's graduate program for 31 years while guiding 14 master's
students and a large number of undergraduates through various research
projects in electrochemistry. For eight of his 18 years on the
college's Graduate Council, he was elected its chairperson.
During his remarks, O'Donnell referred to his many
years as a church organist and choirmaster, which ended when he retired
from St. Mary's in Oswego. He also thanked his children and his wife
Marylou for their presence at the ceremony and for their cooperation
over the years as he pursued so many activities.
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