Erich S. Uffelman
Professor of Chemistry
Washington and Lee University
Erich Uffelman, Professor of Chemistry, has taught at Washington & Lee University since 1993. As a high school junior, Professor Uffelman was drawn to science in Dr. Arnold George’s general chemistry courses at Mansfield University. As a freshman at Bucknell, he researched with Dr. Manning Smith, then spent three years developing new syntheses of dioxovanadium(V) complexes with Dr. Charles Root. He graduated from Bucknell (B.S., magna cum laude) in 1984 as the Outstanding Senior Chemistry Major in the Susquehanna Valley Section of the American Chemical Society and obtained an NSF Predoctoral Fellowship. In 1991, Professor Uffelman received his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology under Professor Terrence Collins.
With Dr. Collins at Caltech and Carnegie Mellon, Dr. Uffelman designed a series of unique macrocyclic tetraamide ligands that generated several unprecedented high-valent complexes of first row transition metals. These systems resulted in Dr. Collins' receiving the 1999 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, and Dr. Uffelman was recognized for his breakthrough contributions. Professor Uffelman was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow with Dr. James P. Collman at Stanford from 1991 to 1993, where he helped develop new methods of synthesizing biomimetic metalloporphyrin complexes. Dr. Uffelman spent sabbatical leaves in 2001 and 2006 with Dr. M. G. Finn of The Scripps Research Institute.
At Washington & Lee, Dr. Uffelman has taught 17 different courses, won four W&L Class of ’65 Excellence in Teaching Awards, and participated in the Associated Colleges of the South Science Education Reform Initiative. He has contributed to the last four NSF CWCS Chemistry in Art Workshops, hosting the 2008 workshop. He also teaches courses on the technical examination of 17th century Dutch painting and has taken 45 students to the Netherlands.
Dr. Uffelman has trained 46 research students in the synthesis and characterization of macrocyclic polyamide transition metal complexes relevant to Green Chemistry. He has authored or coauthored 25 publications on topics ranging from high-valent transition metal chemistry to Green Chemistry and renewable resources. An invited speaker at numerous meetings and institutions, Dr. Uffelman has received funding from the NSF, 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.
While thanking his mentors, Dr. Uffelman warmly acknowledges his colleagues and his students (and their parents) for their limitless kindness. He especially thanks his wife, Louise, and his family and friends for their ongoing support.
