College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

High-risk research

Edward Yeung plans to use funds from new Wright Chair to pursue out-of-the-ordinary research.
Edward Yeung, distinguished professor of liberal arts and sciences and professor of chemistry, has always pushed the envelope when it comes to conducting research.

Four times Yeung has received R&D 100 Awards, dubbed the "Oscars of applied science" by the Chicago Tribune.

His research activities have been honored numerous times including by the American Chemical Society for his work in chemical instrumentation (1987) and chromatography (2002). Last year, he was also honored with the International Prize of the Belgian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

And this November, Yeung will be presented the 2003 Eastern Analytical Symposium, Inc., (EAS) Award for Achievements in Separation Science.

So when President Gregory Geoffroy named Yeung the first recipient of the Robert Allen W right Chair at Iowa State earlier this summer, the distinguished professor knew exactly what he wanted to do.

"The additional research funding (from the Wright Chair) will allow us to more freely pursue ideas that might be far out from the traditional areas of research," Yeung said. "At the initial stages, most of these ideas may not be feasible, but the Wright endowment will allow us to look into high-risk, high-input research."

Yeung and his research group have always pursued high-risk research projects, but obtaining funding was a challenge. That will change now.

"The Wright endowment will provide us with seed funding," Yeung said. "It will save us some time because we’ll be able to start working immediately.

"Research is very competitive and many other researchers may have the same idea," he continued. "Hopefully this will give us a few months' edge."

The Wright endowment will allow for an additional two graduate assistants in Yeung’s research group.

"The type of funding provides a very important educational value, specifically the training of graduate students and post-docs," Yeung said. "By exploring way out, unconventional problems, we'll be able to challenge graduate students to see if there are ways that we can improve on the current methods."

Yeung's research interests span both spectroscopy and chromatography. He has published in areas such as nonlinear spectroscopy, laser-based detectors for liquid chromatography, capillary electrophoresis, trace gas monitoring, single-cell and single-molecule analysis, DNA sequencing, and data treatment procedures in chemical measurements.

With the Wright endowment, Yeung hopes to develop a higher resolution microscope for bio-analytical chemistry, which would be able to look at the finer details of a cell. There are portions of a cell that even with the best microscope, researchers can only see as a dot.

"If we can develop a microscope with 10 times the resolution, we'll be able to see what is inside the sub-cells," Yeung said. "Anytime you can look at a greater detail, you'll be able to discover new biological principles and recognize diseases that you can't see now."

The Robert Allen Wright Chair has been established from the Robert Allen Wright Endowment for Excellence. The $1 million bequest was made through the ISU Foundation for the purpose of building and enhancing the general excellence of academic programs at Iowa State. The appointment recognizes Yeung's teaching and scholarly endeavors in the Department of Chemistry.

Wright was a member of the Iowa State class of 1913 and was an ISU Foundation governor, a member of the ISU Foundation's Order of the Knoll and was named Cy’s favorite alum in 1976.