May 19, 2006 – Professor Emeritus Michael T. Pope receives the 2006 Career Research Achievement Award.

During its commencement exercises on Friday 19 May, the Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences honored Michael T. Pope, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, with its 2006 Career Research Achievement Award. The following citation was read at commencement:

“Professor Pope’s career at Georgetown began in 1962. Over the ensuing years, his outstanding scientific achievements have made the Department of Chemistry at Georgetown a world leading research center in the fundamental chemistry of polyoxolometales. His research and teaching have had long lasting impacts that will be felt by generations of scientists and non-scientists to come.

 “Oxometalate chemistry has emerged as a major field of interdisciplinary research with important new applications in inorganic chemistry, materials science, and nuclear waste chemistry. The importance of this subfield of chemistry has increased over the years in no small measure due to Michael Pope’s original research. His 1983 monograph, Heteropoly and Isopoly Oxometalates, is the definitive book in the field. This work has been cited almost 2000 times to date, establishing it as the most valuable and influential work in this area of chemistry. In addition, Professor Pope has over 180 peer reviewed publications. Professor Pope is the undisputed leader of this enormous and important field.

 “Professor Pope is not only a great scientist but also a great educator. During the last four decades he has mentored 27 Ph.D. students, at least twenty Post-doctoral fellows and numerous undergraduate students. A large fraction of his Ph.D. students are now established members of the U.S. and international scientific communities, which was nicely demonstrated by the recent symposium held in his honor this spring.

 “At Georgetown he served as the Chemistry’s Department Chair for two terms and stepped in to provide service to the department when asked, such as being acting chair in the spring of 2004. He has been in every way not simply a model but an exemplary citizen of the Georgetown community. The Graduate School is very proud to acknowledge his contributions as a scientist, teacher and valued colleague.”