“I have less time to be in the laboratory; however, we continue to publish a number of papers a year,” Sherwood says. “This work helps me be more effective as a dean because I’m doing the same sort of things that the faculty is doing, albeit I have less time to do them.” Sherwood, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Institute of Physics and the AVS Science and Technology Society, is pleased to be at OSU and excited about the direction of the college. He says he is particularly delighted with his most recent tribute. “I’m honored to be named a Regents professor and especially appreciated being nominated by physics faculty. I very much appreciate that.” Matt Elliott Dean’s Honor Is ‘Peer’ Pleasure OSU Arts and Sciences Dean and Regents Professor Peter Sherwood wouldn’t be where he is today if it weren’t for a sudden gust of wind. It was early July 1945, and Adolf Hitler’s V rockets fell on London’s civilians who were used to dodging air raids during the blitz. One day, one of those rockets was headed straight for the Sherwood family’s flat when a high wind blew it across the street and into a second apartment building. That boy saved by chance was born in July 1945 and grew up in London and developed a taste for chemistry, later receiving a first-class honors bachelor of science degree from St. Andrews University in Scotland. While there, he won the Forester Prize and the Irvine Jubilee Medal, which are awarded to the highest-ranked undergraduate chemistry student. Sherwood earned two graduate degrees from Cambridge University, entered the field of surface science, the study of properties that exist on the surface of solids, and then became a faculty member — the youngest faculty member at the time at Downing College, Cambridge. In addition to Cambridge he has taught at Newcastle University in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, as well as the University of Bari in Italy, Kansas State University at Manhattan and the University of California at Berkeley. His career yielded him the Outstanding Performance Award from the National Science Foundation for his work in 1990 as an analytical and surface chemistry program officer. In 2003, he received Kansas State’s Presidential Award for Outstanding Department Head. He led the chemistry department at Kansas State from 1997 to 2004 and is now a distinguished professor emeritus. Since becoming dean at OSU in 2004, Sherwood dedicates much of his time to administrative work but still finds time to teach freshmen research classes and conduct his own research, which has appeared in more than 200 publications. Gary Lawson Oklahoma State University 21
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