Media contact: Priscilla L. Hunter, 312.344.7805, phunter@colum.edu or Jeff Wade, 312.344.7544, jwade@colum.edu
Chicago, May 2003 -- Dr. Zafra M. Lerman, distinguished professor of science and public policy and head of the Institute for Science Education and Science Communication at Columbia College Chicago, has been selected by the Board of the American Chemical Society (ACS) as the 2003 recipient of its prestigious Parsons Award in recognition of outstanding public service through chemistry. The ACS is the world's largest scientific society.
Lerman says that receiving "the Parsons Award means the most to me in recognition of service to society. It also memorializes my late mentor at Cornell, Franklin A. Long, who received the Parsons in 1985 and hoped that I would also become a recipient.
After carrying out research at Cornell University, Northwestern University, and ETH Zurich, Lerman joined Columbia College in 1977 as director of the science program.
In 1981, she founded and chaired the Department of Science and Mathematics, where she continued to develop novel approaches to teaching science to nonscience majors, elementary and high school teachers and students, and the general public. For example, under National Science Foundation sponsorship, she runs summer workshops on environmental chemistry for 40 Chicago public school teachers each year. She also has taught chemistry in the informal setting of a Maywood, Illinois dance studio with minority students who learn chemistry through dance and then perform for the public.
Lerman's innovative educational activities have been recognized with numerous awards, including the ACS Northeastern Section's 2002 James Flack Norris Award for Excellence in Teaching Chemistry; 2000 World Cultural Council Award for Excellence in Education (the first international award presented in the newly democratic South Africa); the 2000 National Ethics Award from the American Institute of Chemists; the 1999 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics & Engineering Mentoring; and the 1998 ACS Award for Encouraging Disadvantaged Students into Careers in the Chemical Sciences.
Lerman is equally well-known in the human rights area, where she works tirelessly and sometimes at great personal danger--to publicize the plight of dissident scientists in China, Belarus, and Russia. She has chaired the Scientific Freedom and Human Rights Subcommittee of the ACS Committee on International Activities for more than 15 years.
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