Rate My Professor Galen D. Stucky

Galen D. Stucky is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and the Materials Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, holding the Essam Khashoggi Chair in Materials Chemistry. He earned a B.S. in Chemistry and Physics from McPherson College in 1957 and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Iowa State University in 1962 under R. E. Rundle, with a dissertation on solvated Grignard compounds. Following postdoctoral research at MIT with C. G. Shull on neutron scattering and at the Quantum Chemistry Institute, he began his academic career as Assistant Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1964, advancing to Associate Professor in 1968 and Full Professor in 1972. He served as Member of Technical Staff and Supervisor at Sandia National Laboratory from 1979 to 1981, then as Group and Research Leader at DuPont Central Research and Development until 1985, before joining UCSB that year. At UCSB, he holds appointments across Chemistry & Biochemistry, Materials, and the Biomolecular Science & Engineering Program, and was designated E. Khashoggi Industries, LLC Professor in Letters and Science in 2006.

Stucky's research specializes in the design and synthesis of multifunctional materials through cooperative molecular assembly, focusing on organic/inorganic interfaces, nucleation chemistry, biomolecular assembly on inorganic surfaces, methane conversion to chemicals and fuels, meso- and nanostructured photovoltaic and photocatalytic systems, gradient materials, and biomineralization routes. Key contributions include surfactant-templated mesoporous materials in "Generalized synthesis of periodic surfactant/inorganic composite materials" (Nature, 1994) and "Hierarchically ordered oxides" (Science, 1998), quantum-confined semiconductor clusters in zeolites, and hemostatic inorganic agents for combat casualty care, earning the Advanced Technology Applications for Combat Casualty Care Award in 2008. His accolades encompass Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1994), Alexander von Humboldt Senior US Scientist Award (2000), ACS Award in the Chemistry of Materials (2002), International Mesostructured Materials Association Award (2004), Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2005), Nano Today Award (2011), ACS Fellow (2013), election to the National Academy of Sciences (2013), Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research (2014), and Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (2015). Author of over 730 publications and holder of 28 U.S. patents, Stucky has profoundly impacted materials chemistry, particularly mesoporous and nanocomposite systems.