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College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
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October 5, 2006

Former students dedicate textbook to chemistry's John Corbett

In a fitting tribute to his mentor, a former "student" has dedicated a textbook, Inorganic Chemistry in Focus III, to John Corbett, Distinguished Professor of liberal arts and sciences, professor of chemistry and Ames Lab senior chemist.

Actually, it was a group effort as all 21 chapters of the book are written exclusively by Corbett's former graduate students and postdoctoral associates from throughout the world, and all of whom entered academia.

The book, published earlier this year by Wiley-VCH, was edited by Gerd Meyer, Dieter Naumann and Lars Wesemann. Meyer, a professor of inorganic chemistry at the University of Cologne, Germany, worked with Corbett in 1980 as a visiting scientist and dedicated the book to
Corbett in honor of his mentor's 80th birthday on March 23, 2006.

"This book is about passion. A passion for chemistry...a passion and admiration for John's way of conducting research in solid state chemistry
and for the way he passes his vast amount of accumulated knowledge to his students, post-doctoral associates and the community as a whole,"

Meyer said in his dedication. "John Corbett is a truly outstanding solid state inorganic chemist, an individual of immense and different talents, who has influenced not only his discipline but, in many ways, has led the renaissance in solid state chemistry over the past several decades."

The dedication, co-authored by Kenneth Poeppelmeier, professor of chemistry at Northwestern University and another of Corbett's students, highlighted Corbett's career and contributions. It also contained a number of "Corbett Quotables" pulled from some of the many articles published during his lengthy career

"John's energy and enthusiasm for chemistry have not diminished over 50-plus years of active service but, on the contrary, appear to be on the increase," Poeppelmeier said. "We wish John a very happy birthday and look foward to many more ‘Corbett Quotables' in the years to come."

While Corbett found the dedication "very touching," he is most proud of the accomplishments of his many students.

"The most rewarding for me is seeing all these students develop into experts in the field in their own right," he said. "I'd also like to thank my very
old friend Gerd Meyer for all his work in coordinating all those authors and articles."u

Kerry Gibson
Ames Laboratory

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