Professor Jerome (Jerry) Keister earned a BS degree in chemistry from the Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge in 1973. In 1978, Jerry completed his PhD at University of Illinois at Urbana under the direction of Professor J. R. Shapley. His dissertation focused on reactions of the unsaturated metal cluster H2Os3(CO)10 with organic substrates.

Jerry joined the Department of Chemistry at UB as an assistant professor in 1980 after a brief position as a research chemist at Exxon Research and Engineering Co conducting basic research on homogeneous catalysis. He was appointed as Professor of Chemistry in 1991. Jerry served as UB Department of Chemistry Chair from 1992 to 1998 during that exciting period when chemistry moved from Acheson Hall on the south campus to the Natural Sciences Complex on the north campus. Jerry helped to recruit and successfully bring many new faculty members to UB. Most recently, Jerry served a long stint as the Director of Undergraduate Studies and in this role, he worked tirelessly meeting with our undergraduate students to plan out their academic schedules. Jerry retired from UB in 2021 after an exciting 41-year career to work on his golf game and spend time traveling with his wife Holly Lawson who also retired from her professorship at SUNY Fredonia.

While at UB, Jerry’s research focused on organometallic chemistry and redox chemistry of Ru cluster compounds and teasing out catalytic reaction mechanisms. Jerry’s research employed chemical synthesis and numerous characterization techniques including IR, NMR, UV/Visible and EPR spectroscopies. In his research program, he was keenly interested in the electrochemistry of organometallic complexes with redox-active organic ligands. More recently, Jerry collaborated with Professor Steve Diver studying the mechanism of alkene-alkyne metathesis using kinetic studies. At group meetings, Steve referred to Jerry as the “kinetics guru” and deferred to Jerry in all kinetic matters. Jerry authored over 80 peer-reviewed publications and contributed over 120 conference presentations and invited lectures during his academic career.

Jerry served in the editorial advisory board of Organometallics (1996-1999). He received several awards for his contributions to the field, including Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship (1987-1989). Jerry has been an active participant in the chemistry community of the Western New York. He served in the Western New York Section of the American Chemical Society as Councilor, Chair-elect and Chair (1987-1990).

Jerry generously contributed his time to service work at UB and in our department. In addition to his aforementioned roles as Department Chair and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Jerry had served on the Dean's Advisory Committee on Promotions & Tenure Committee. Jerry led efforts to keep the chemistry degree accredited by the American Chemical Society, working with faculty and staff to keep the curriculum relevant and up-to-date. He mentored 21 PhD and master’s degree students as well as numerous undergraduate researchers. Jerry has also been a devoted teacher. He has taught many flavors of chemistry, including general, inorganic and organometallic chemistry.