The Carl “Speed” Marvel Endowed Fellowship In Chemistry
Carl “Speed” Marvel, a professor of chemistry at The University of Arizona and before that at the University of Illinois was one of the world’s most outstanding polymer chemists. He was an outstanding scientist and during his distinguished career a driving force in developing new polymers and elucidating the underlying theories. His work is published in over 500 research reports. However, most important and rewarding for Carl “Speed” Marvel was the training of over 300 doctoral and post-doctoral students. Today among his students are a Nobel Prize winner, Vincent du Vigneaud and the inventor of nylon, Wallace Carothers.
Born in 1894 and receiving his B.A. and M.S. degrees in 1915, Marvel entered the University of Illinois at Urbana on a scholarship to study chemistry. Because of a deficiency in courses taken, his first semester consisted, not of the customary four courses, but of five, of which four were laboratory courses. Marvel's classmates nicknamed him "Speed," a name he used throughout his career, because he could work late in the laboratory, sleep until the last moment, and still get to breakfast before the dining hall closed at 7:30 A.M.
Carl “Speed” Marvel is one of few UA scientists to receive the National Medal of Science. However, his legacy is manifold and even today supports and encourages science education.
Under Carl Speed Marvel’s guidance the Marvel Fellowship was created in 1975 to ensure that scholarly excellence by graduate students was encouraged and recognized. Today we seek to make this a fully endowed fellowship to ensure permanency of Carl “Speed” Marvel’s quest.
The Marvel Fellowship Circle of Excellence
Meant to honor young scientists who show the potential to follow in the footsteps of Carl S. Marvel, the Marvel Fellowship will be awarded to a Chemistry graduate student who has demonstrated (1) the ability to carry out independent research in chemistry in a scholarly and enthusiastic way, (2) the talent to successfully teach and mentor undergraduate and/or junior graduate students and (3) participation in outreach or service activities. In summary, the student needs to show him/herself to be our top graduate student in all aspects of the program.
- The fellowship will be given to a Chemistry graduate student for outstanding research performance as evidenced by seminars, publications, presentations at meetings, safety awareness, and collaboration with others both in and outside of the student’s research group.
- Other aspects of the student’s graduate career such as departmental citizenship and teaching will also be considered.
- The fellowship will be awarded without regard for the area of specialization.
- A student must have been advanced to Ph.D. candidacy in order to be considered.
Past winners of the prestigious Carl 'Speed' Marvel Fellowship:
First |
Last |
Year |
| Oliver | Ileperuma | 1975 |
| Donald | Deardorff | 1976 |
| Patricia | Weber | 1977 |
| Herbert | Fry | 1978 |
| Steven | Schubert | 1979 |
| Steven | Walter | 1980 |
| John | Hubbard | 1981 |
| Charles | Blevins | 1982 |
| Peter | Rieke | 1983 |
| Clemente | Vallenilla | 1984 |
| Amorn | Petsom | 1985 |
| Leah | O'Brien | 1986 |
| Roger | Bumgarner | 1987 |
| Dharshi | Bopegedera | 1988 |
| Jeffrey | Arterburn | 1989 |
| Mario | Rivera | 1990 |
| Nevin | Oliphant | 1991 |
| Bruce | Armitage | 1992 |
| Nadine | Gruhn | 1993 |
| Donald | Morrison | 1994 |
| Dalibor | Sames | 1995 |
| Lawrence | Williams | 1996 |
| Igor | Filippov | 1997 |
| Katherine | McReynolds | 1998 |
| Shawn | Allwein | 1999 |
| Christopher | Zangmeister | 2000 |
| Michael | Palian | 2001 |
| Phillip | Sheridan | 2002 |
| Jinfa | Ying | 2003 |
| Wei | Xia | 2004 |
| Min | Zhou | 2005 |
| Guilong | Cheng | 2006 |
| Clifford | Stains | 2007 |
| Emily | Grumbling | 2008 |
Please send Donations to:
Chemistry Alumni Association - Carl 'Speed' Marvel Fellowship Endowment
Department of CHemistry
The University of Arizona
PO Box 210041
Tucson, AZ 85721-0041
