Chemistry & Biochemistry

Giving to Chemistry & Biochemistry

Funding opportunities for SDSU Chemistry & Biochemistry

• The Joi Weeks Fund for African American Chemists. This fund supports scholarships to promising African American undergraduate and graduate students.
• Chemistry Endowment Fund. This is our general endowment, which provides us with the greatest degree of disrection in spending, funding TA awards, student research presentation awards, small parts for instrument maintenance, travel to conferences, software for teaching and research labs, computers, and emergency purchases to repair equipment.
• Alfred McLeod Chemistry Endowment. The McLeod fund provides support for the Department's major equipment, including matching funds to increase our access to federal funding for research instruments.
• Several funds have been established in honor of past faculty in the Department whose contributions continue to inform and inspire the work of our faculty and students. Please consider donations in honor of
  • Prof. Diane K. Smith. Diane Smith was a deeply beloved member of the department from 1990 to 2022. An extraordinary colleague in all respects, Diane was long-time chair of the department's Curriculum Committee, led an internationally recognized program in electrochemical characterization of hydrogen-bonded complexes, and served as the mainstay instructor of Chem 201, the second semester general chemistry course, for over 20 years. Diane was awarded the Jaroslav Heyrovsky prize for Molecular Electrochemistry by the International Society of Electrochemistry shortly before her untimely death from scleroderma in 2022. Diane is fondly remembered by generations of undergraduate and graduate students. This fund provides scholarships to undergraduate researchers.
  • Prof. Michael Malley. Mike Malley was a groundbreaking physical chemist who served in the department from 1970 to his untimely passing in 1991 at the age of 51. He worked in the field of ultrafast spectroscopy at its inception, and supervised the work of postdoc Gérard Mourou, who went on to share the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics for extensions of that work. This fund supports annual scholarships to graduate students in chemistry.
  • Prof. Maury A. Ring. Maury Ring is an inorganic chemist who served the department from 1962 to 1995, during which time his partnership with physical chemist Ed O'Neal created probably the most fruitful collaboration in the department's history. Together they pioneered studies of silane chemistry, with funding from NSF and numerous other sources. This fund supports student scholarships and research needs in the area of inorganic chemistry.
  • Prof. Harold (Hal) Walba. Hal Walba was a key figure in the department's growth, serving on the faculty from 1949 to 1986 and as chair from 1961 to 1964 as plans for the joint Doctoral Program were being developed. An organic chemist and Fellow of the AAAS, Walba collaborated closely with Robert Isensee over much of his career. This fund supports graduate student fellowships in organic chemistry.

Ways to donate to SDSU Chemistry & Biochemistry

• Go to the SDSU Online Giving page. Click on the Donate button and enter “chemistry” in the Designations box to see the options.
• Mail a gift (payable to the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry) to the following address.
  
  
  Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
  5500 Campanile Drive, GMCS 209
  San Diego, CA 92182-1030 (U.S.A.)
  
  If you would like to donate to a specific fund, just add that to the notes line of your check. And thank you very much.