In Memoriam

Professor Joseph Tufariello was a synthetic organic chemist who retired from UB in 2003. During his longtime career at UB, he served as chair of UB Chemistry and Dean of College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (predecessor to CAS). Professor Tufariello established an endowment in honor of his parents that is used to present an award to the outstanding graduating senior at UB Chemistry.

Professor Robert Allendoerfer (Bob) was a member of our faculty from the late 1960s until his retirement in 2001. Professor Allendoerfer's research program focused primarily on the use of electrochemistry and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy to generate and characterize organic radicals. Additionally, Bob was a passionate and dedicated instructor of undergraduate chemistry courses. He played a leading role in refining our general chemistry curriculum over the years. Bob was an early innovator in introducing web-based and computer-aided calculations and instruction in general chemistry, and he contributed significantly to the chemical education literature in these areas. Bob was awarded the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1987.

Professor James McIver (Jim) was a member of our faculty for 40-plus years. He was a theoretical chemist who developed computational methodologies and studied electronic structure, reaction trajectories and intermediates, and biradical species. Jim was a dedicated and passionate teacher. He served our department in many capacities over the years, including as our Director of Undergraduate Studies.

Professor Alan Jere Solo (Jere) attended MIT and was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1955. He then went on to earn M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Organic Chemistry from Columbia University in 1956 and 1959 respectively. He worked as research associate at the Rockefeller University in New York City from 1958 through 1962 when he accepted a position as assistant professor of Medicinal Chemistry at University at Buffalo, SUNY, becoming a full professor in 1970.

Professor Michael Detty was a native of Ohio. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Bowling Green State University and his PhD in organic chemistry from The Ohio State University. After completing his PhD, Mike spent 17 years as a research scientist at the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, where he developed a range of dye chromophores, focusing particularly on IR-absorbing dyes. His work at Kodak yielded 26 patents and 62 peer-reviewed articles. In 1995, Mike joined UB’s faculty, initially in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and then in the Department of Chemistry following the merger of the two departments. Mike made lasting contributions in research, teaching, and service, and he truly relished the opportunity to contribute in all three pillars of academia.

Professor Peter Lansbury, Sr. joined UB’s Chemistry faculty in 1960 and spent his entire career here until retiring in 1995. During his career at the University at Buffalo, he collaborated in physical-organic and synthetic organic chemistry research with his 38 Ph.D. students, 12 post-doctoral fellow and numerous undergraduate scholars. His major scientific contributions were in organosynthetic methodology and natural products total synthesis, for which he was awarded the 1985 Jacob F. Schoellfopf Medal by the Western New York ACS. Professor Lansbury created the Peter T. Lansbury Undergraduate Research Award for junior Chemistry majors. The award is for a research project to be done during the summer between the Junior and Senior year.

Professor O.T. Beachley, Jr. (known as Ted) joined the faculty of the chemistry department at the University at Buffalo in 1966. He loved teaching undergraduate classes as well as graduate students who worked in his research lab. He retired from the University at Buffalo in 2002. Dr. Beachley was actively engaged in research throughout his career, including work on projects funded by the Office of Naval Research. Through his research, he discovered a new chemical compound in 1993 and was granted four U.S. patents for his inventions related to semiconductors. Dr. Beachley was awarded multiple research grants, and his work in chemistry was widely published. He co-authored a lab manual and an inorganic chemistry textbook that is still being used in classrooms today. At UB, he was the Director of Graduate Studies for the chemistry department. He also served as the associate vice president of research for the University. In 1975, he received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 1996 he was chosen to be an Honorary Member of the Golden Key National Honor Society, UB Chapter, nominated by students for his teaching and support of undergraduates.

Professor George Nancollas, a member of the UB faculty from 1965-2014, was recognized internationally for his research on the physical chemistry of the interface between solids and liquids, and the mechanism of crystal growth and dissolution. A holder of UB’s Larkin Chair in Chemistry, he was the author of more than 420 publications and the recipient of numerous awards, among them the National Institutes of Health MERIT Award and the Schoellkopf Medal from the local chapter of the American Chemical Society. He was named a 2011 Pioneer of Science by the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute. He was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the American Association for Crystal Growth. During his tenure at UB, Nancollas also held administrative positions as provost of the former Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and as chair of the former Department of Biomaterials. He was well-known in the local community as the founder of the Western New York Science and Technology Forum, an annual program designed to expose teachers at all levels — elementary, middle and high school — to some of the most exciting new scientific developments in a broad range of fields.