UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Over his more than 50 years as a Penn State professor, chemist Harry Allcock and members of his research program have collaborated with colleagues in industry and government laboratories in a wide variety of fields, from aerospace and biomedical engineering to energy generation. According to Allcock, the more than 150 graduate students and numerous undergraduate students and postdoctoral researchers who have worked with him have greatly benefited from these collaborations and gone on to pursue successful careers in equally varied fields.
“Over the years, my wife and I have noted the positive outcomes of our students working with industry and government counterparts and we wanted to extend those opportunities to other undergraduates in our department,” said Allcock, who is an Atherton Professor of Chemistry at Penn State.
Harry Allcock and his wife, Noreen, who helped run their large research group for many years, have made a $250,000 gift to endow the Dr. Harry Allcock Chemistry Undergraduate External Research Experience Fund. The fund will provide financial support for undergraduate students in the Department of Chemistry who are participating in an industry or government internship experience.
“It used to be the norm for students in the field of chemistry to seek a graduate school appointment, then take a postdoctoral position in a similar topic, and eventually become faculty member at a university, where they continued similar research,” he said. “But that type of career is becoming more difficult, and the majority of students will become employed in industry or government laboratories. I think one of the best things we can do as educators is to broaden the interests and experiences of our students to match these changes.”
Allcock has a long history of working with industry and government labs and offices. As a high school student in his hometown of Loughborough, England, and during his vacations as an undergraduate, he spent several summers at a company that specialized in organic nitrogen chemistry, which allowed him to learn how industrial research works. After completing his doctoral degree at the University of London — studying organosilicon chemistry — and postdoctoral positions at Purdue University and the National Research Council of Canada — studying fluorine and phosphorus chemistry and organic polymer chemistry, respectively —, he took a position as a research chemist at the American Cyanamid Laboratories in Stamford, Connecticut. There, he explored organophosphorus chemistry and the effects of high-energy radiation on materials.
“This job involved interacting with other people in industry and in government agencies, and I also had a chance to do my own research for part of the time,” Allcock said. “After five years, it had become apparent to me that I could bring all this experience together only in a university environment. This brought me to Penn State in 1966, and part of the draw to Penn State were the many people on this campus, including engineers, with whom I and my students could work.
“My prior experience in industry was tremendously valuable and helped connect me with many collaborators,” he continued. “By the time I got to Penn State, I was already working with one company and soon was consulting for the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and several other organizations. We could not have done half of what we have done if we had not had those early interactions.”
Allcock’s research focuses on the design and creation of polymers — materials composed of many repeating units — with unique sets of properties created by combining organic and inorganic components. He explores how changing the polymer structure within a material can change its properties, which can then be tailored for specific applications. Allcock initially discovered a method for synthesizing polymers using a technique called macromolecular substitution that led to the creation of a major class of polymers known as polyphosphazenes. These have been adapted for challenging uses in fuel cells, lithium batteries, and perhaps the most immediate uses in bone substitutes, scaffolds for biomedical tissue regeneration or blood-contacting materials such as cardiovascular stents, replacement blood vessels, and catheters. With the students and postdoctoral researchers in his research program, he has published more than 670 scientific publications and 60 patents for Penn State.
“I strongly believe that some of the most important research today and in the future is going to be at the borderline between one subject and another,” he said. “Students should also aim for that approach when they choose a research field. In other words, if you are a biologist, then you should pick a subject that is on the borderline with chemistry or physics, or if you're trained as a chemist, then you should look for an engineer to collaborate with. We’ve really focused our collaborations in cross-disciplinary fields, and it has been quite successful.”
Allcock believes the Research Experience Fund will help to provide opportunities for students to broaden their options outside academia, which he says may be essential for whatever career a student might eventually choose.
“Harry is an outstanding researcher, educator and mentor who has already made a considerable impact on the Penn State community, and we are grateful that he and Noreen have chosen to further support our chemistry students with this gift,” said Tracy Langkilde, Verne M. Willaman Dean of the Penn State Eberly College of Science. “Expanding internships and other opportunities for Eberly students is an important priority of mine for this coming year, and I am excited that these funds will allow more students to gain meaningful experience in industry and government”
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