W&L's Uffelman to Give Cincinnati Professorship Inaugural Lecture
Erich S. Uffelman, professor of chemistry at Washington and Lee University, will give the Cincinnati Professorship Inaugural Lecture on Friday, Oct. 5, at 4:30 p.m. in Science Center A214. Uffelman was named to the professorship in July 2012.
The title of Uffelman’s lecture is “Scientific Adventures with Rembrandt, Vermeer, Veronese, Peale, Ghissi and Others.” The talk is free and open to the public.
The talk will briefly explain the importance of the scientific examination of cultural heritage objects followed by examples from the literature and from Uffelman’s own research that illustrate key concepts and useful discoveries. Live demonstrations of x-ray fluorescence spectrometry and infrared reflectography will be used with the cultural heritage objects.
Uffelman joined W&L’s faculty in 1993. He has authored or coauthored more than 25 publications on topics ranging from high-valent transition metal chemistry to “Green Chemistry” (also known as sustainable chemistry) and renewable resources. He has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Research Corporation, the American Chemical Society-PRF, Hewlett Packard/Agilent, the Thomas F. and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust, the Associated Colleges of the South, W.M. Keck Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Uffelman was awarded the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia in 2009 and was among 12 outstanding faculty members from Virginia’s public and private colleges and universities to receive the award that year. He was awarded the Washington and Lee University Class of ’65 Excellence in Teaching Award four times and from 1991-1993 was a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University, among many other awards.
In addition to his work in various areas of chemistry, Uffelman has researched the methods and examples of investigations performed by art conservators and conservation scientists on Dutch Golden Age paintings. He teaches a class on science in art and also offers a seminar on 17th century Dutch painting, which includes field work in The Netherlands.
Uffelman received his B.S. from Bucknell University and his Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology.
The Cincinnati Professorship recognizes the gift of the Society of the Cincinnati of Virginia to Washington Academy, a predecessor institution to Washington and Lee University. The Society, a group of former officers of the Continental Army, influenced by George Washington’s gift to the Academy, voted in 1802 to turn over its assets to the school, a gift that helped the institution survive.
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