CAS CONNECT 2017

27 Foundation from about 1996 to 2008, the program has long supported a handful of graduate and undergraduate students each year. “We weren’t great teachers, but we did do interesting things,” he says. “I think the students who worked with us liked what we did, and it just so happens, a lot of them are teachers now.” One, Nevin Uras-Aytemiz, is here on sabbatical from Turkey with her family for this academic year and will be in the lab to expand and renew the joint science she has done in past years. Originally from Colorado, Devlin grew up as a farmer. He attended liberal arts boarding high schools (partially in Oklahoma) and college before venturing to Kansas State University — and while he’s always had a knack for math and science, actually becoming a scientist “kind of just happened,” he says. “I was at a small college, and after two years was going to have to transfer if I wanted to be an engineer, but I could stay where I was and be a scientist, so I stayed,” he says. “But it worked out. For me, it’s been about as good as life can be.” Devlin received his doctor- ate in physical chemistry from Kansas State University in 1960 and moved on to the University of Minnesota for postdoctoral work until 1961. He then accepted a position at OSU, and he’s been here ever since. Paul Devl in, professor emeritus, first came to OSU in 1961. After more than 20 years of retirement, his research continues in a campus lab. PHOTO/JEANNE DEVLIN