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ESF Celebrates December Convocation
Two alumni to be honored during ceremony
The SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) will award 197 degrees, including 61 master's degrees and 17 Doctor of Philosophy degrees, during the 2014 December Convocation 1 p.m. Dec. 5 at Hendricks Chapel.
Two alumni will be honored during convocation. The Lifetime Achievement award will be bestowed upon Dr. Jean M.J. Frechet '69, '72, and the Notable Achievement Award will be given to Dr. Jin Yoshimura '89.
Dr. Jean M.J. Frechet is a world-class materials chemist who has dramatically advanced the field of materials science, chemistry and numerous other related disciplines and was a recipient of the 2013 Japan Prize, one of the most prestigious international awards in science and technology.
He received his master's degree and Ph.D. in chemistry from ESF in 1969 and 1972, respectively.
Frechet studied chemistry at ESF with renowned chemistry professor Dr. Conrad Schuerch and is currently vice president for research at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia. He has served as an advisor to several global companies, including Unilever, IBM Corporation, Xerox and DuPont.
In receiving the Japan Prize, Frechet was honored for his outstanding achievement in the "development of chemically amplified resist polymer materials for innovative semiconductor manufacturing processes." The Japan Prize Foundation annually awards the Japan Prize to scientists and researchers who, regardless of nationality, make substantial contributions to their fields as well as to the peace and prosperity of mankind.
After receiving his Ph.D. from ESF's Department of Environmental and Forest Biology in 1989, Yoshimura achieved a number of important professional accomplishments.
His dissertation on how chance influences the evolutional process and ecological systems is still widely cited today. His recent work on the evolution of periodic cicadas has received much attention in the world of entomology and evolutionary ecology. One of his papers on this topic was published in PNAS, and others in Evolution and American Naturalist, the top journals in their fields. Yoshimura's prominence in the field is indicated by the numerous positions he has earned with top researchers in ecology and evolution during his career, and his wide collaborations on a multitude of topics in these areas. He has an impressive publication record in terms of breadth, creativity and journal outlets.