Biographical Sketch
for
Daryle H. Busch
Chemistry Department, The University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS 66049, busch@ku.edu
Daryle H. Busch is the Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Kansas, a position he has occupied since August of 1988. In 2003 he also became Deputy Director of the National Science Foundation, Engineering Research Center having the title “Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis”.
Professor Busch was born March 30, 1928, as the second child and only son of a Postal Service employee and his mother was from a merchant family in their home town, Carterville, IL, population 2800. The next national election saw most federally funded employees replaced, and many businesses failed. The harshness of the great depression was his early experience. His high school years paralleled World War II and his expectation during those formative years was that he would go to war. Upon graduation from high school in 1946, he enlisted and served in the US Army for about 2 years, most of the time as chief clerk for the Surgeon General, Far East Command, in MacArthur’s headquarters.
Since the war was over, a major motivation for enlisting was to get the resources to go to college. Federal legislation known to veterans as the GI Bill, provided funding for 4 years of college education. Having been overseas for the most recent 10% of his life, Daryle chose to attend the university closest to home, Southern Illinois University. He graduated in 3 years with a BA in Chemistry (1951, honors), having lucked out in a recall lottery for the Korean conflict. Busch then went on to graduate school at the University of Illinois, where he worked with Professor John C. Bailar, Jr., a scholar and teacher of , to Daryle, saintly characteristics. He received the MS degree in 1952 and the Ph.D. in 1954.
In late winter of 1951 Daryle Busch and Geraldine Barnes were married in her home town, Herrin, IL, (6 miles from Carterville). The marriage produced, among other things, two graduate degrees and five children, Derek H. Busch (musician, deceased), Michael C. Busch (regional technical manager for a big dialysis firm), Steven J. Busch (middle manager and lead scientist, Sanofi Inc, previously Aventis), Cheryl Ann Rome (co-owner, with husband John, and former advertising manager of a number of Wendy’s stores), and Kristina Marie Rodriguez (RN, homemaker). In addition, Jeri and Daryle have nine grandchildren ranging in age from 5 to 25 years, and one great grand child.
Daryle Busch’s independent career began in 1954 as a faculty member at The Ohio State University where he rose through the ranks from Assistant Professor to Presidential Professor (1987). His research in basic transition metal coordination chemistry fathered the general field of macrocyclic ligand chemistry and created the molecular template effect. He was among the founders of the subject of ligand reactions and an early researcher and proponent of bioinorganic chemistry. In 1970, he first described the phenomenon labeled by others as preorganization. His research is presently focused on homogeneous catalysis, bioinorganic chemistry, orderly molecular entanglements, a part of supramolecular and nanochemistry, and green (environmentally benign) chemistry. Recognitions of his research include the ACS Award for Distinguished Service in Inorganic Chemistry (1976), the ACS Award for Research in Inorganic Chemistry (1963), the John C. Bailar Medal of the University of Illinois (1978), the Dwyer Medal of the Royal Society of N.S.Wales, Australia (1978), the Izatt-Christenson International Award for Macrocyclic Chemistry (1994), and the Basolo Medal of Northwestern University (2003). Also in 2003, Professor Busch was an honorary inductee into the Chemical Society of Japan along with five other internationally known scientists, four of whom were Nobel laureates. Throughout his research career Busch has worked closely with industry and holds 11 patents joint with five major industrial companies (Dupont, Air Products & Chemicals, 3M, Monsanto, Procter & Gamble), and 2 universities KU and OSU). His new role as Deputy Director of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis exploits his commitments to scholarship and to the industries concerned with chemistry.
Busch has contributed to all aspects of university education, having taught thousands of undergraduates, guided over 200 Ph.D. and postdoctoral researchers, written three text books, and numerous book chapters, articles, and reviews. His teaching has been recognized by the University of Kansas Louis Byrd Graduate Educator Award (1996) and an Ohio State University Alumni Teaching Award (1980). His service to the American Chemical Society (ACS) includes the Chairs of the Local Sections in Columbus, Ohio, and the University of Kansas, General Chair of the 3rd Central Regional Meeting, Chair of the Division of Inorganic Chemistry, and of its Bioinorganic Subdivision, Advisory Boards of the Office of Graduate Education and the Green Chemistry Institute and various committee assignments, including chairing the Society Committee on Education. He served in the Presidential Succession and on the Board of Directors of the American Chemical Society, and was President of the ACS in 2000. He was recently Chair of the Chemistry Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and served the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry as Chair of the Commission on Inorganic Nomenclature and as Secretary of the Inorganic Chemistry Division Committee. Professor Busch remains active in teaching, research and institutional development. His appointment by the President of the U.S. to the U.S. National Nuclear Waste Technical Advisory Board has just been announced. This assignment builds on decades of service to the Department of Energy.