Unbreakable Bonds

With help from a generous donation, the Department of Chemistry named a lecture hall and established an endowed lecture series to recognize alumni Bryant A. Miner and his faculty mentor Henry Eyring.

The auditorium in the Thatcher Chemistry Building, Room 4630, will be named The Henry Eyring and Bryant A. Miner Lecture Theater in permanent recognition of the profound mentor-based partnership shared between two chemists important in the department’s history.

“This lecture theater is a fitting tribute to Eyring and Miner,” says Cynthia Burrows, Chemistry Department chair. “Students, faculty and distinguished guests use this space to share new knowledge and discoveries, to stimulate new discussions and collaborations.”

Henry Eyring established the University’s Graduate School and developed the Chemistry Department into a national research and education powerhouse.

Eyring served as Bryant Miner’s graduate thesis advisor while Miner earned his doctorate degree in chemistry in 1965. Eyring and Miner enjoyed a fulfilling academic and professional relationship that spanned some 20 years.

Miner went on to a long and successful career at Weber State University in Ogden where he taught chemistry to countless students

in his 43-year tenure. He was highly regarded as a dedicated and brilliant teacher. His passion for teaching and love of science are evident in his impact on his numerous students.

The inaugural Henry Eyring and Bryant A. Miner Lectureships in Chemistry were held on March 27 and 28 in the newly named lecture theater. The presentations, held in tandem, featured two outstanding chemists – Robert H. Grubbs of Caltech and Melanie S. Sanford of the University of Michigan, whose strong mentor-based professional and academic relationship resembles that of Henry Eyring and Bryant Miner.

“To my knowledge, there is no other program on campus with the same emphasis on this academic relationship,” says Burrows.

Grubbs was the thesis advisor for Sanford while she completed her doctorate degree at the California Institute of Technology in 2001.

Sanford had joined Grubbs’ research group in 1998 and worked closely with him on research in organometallic chemistry and synthetic chemistry, particularly the development of novel catalysts for olefin metathesis. In fact, the title of Sanford’s own doctoral thesis was Synthetic and Mechanistic Investigations of Ruthenium Olefin Metathesis Catalysts.

“Working with Bob was one of the best decisions of my life. His mentoring style helped me grow into the scientist that I am today, and his continued support has been instrumental in my success.”

Grubbs would go on to win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on “the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis,” while Sanford received a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2011 and was named an American Chemical Society Fellow in 2016.

Sanford was also elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016, and is now the Moses Gomberg Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan. She currently advises 15 graduate students and seven postdoctoral researchers in her lab.

Grubbs and Sanford continue to enjoy an academic and professional relationship that’s already spanned some 20 years.

“Bob continues to inspire me as both a mentor and a scientist. This lectureship was a great opportunity to spend some time with him and to see the amazing science that continues in his lab,” says Sanford.

The endowed Henry Eyring and Bryant A. Miner Lectureships will be offered each year in the Department of Chemistry.

“In future Eyring and Miner lectureships, we will continue to emphasize the invaluable mentor-based academic relationships that often occur in graduate level research,” says Burrows. N

Editor’s note: Melanie S. Sanford also is working closely with University of Utah chemists Matthew Sigman and Shelley Minteer on a Department of Energy Joint Center for Energy Storage Research project to develop redox flow batteries for better storage of renewable energy sources.