GSAC honors Chemistry prof

Around 100 students, faculty and alumni gathered in the Chemistry Building yesterday to honor Chemistry Professor and 1970 University alumna Madeleine JoulliZ with the first Graduate Student Associations Council and Phi Lambda Upsilon Honorary Chemical Society Distinguished Achievement Award. JoulliZ -- who has a long resume of distinctions as the first woman to receive the American Chemical Society Philadelphia Section Award and the 1978 Garvan Medal -- listened as her colleagues and previous students spoke about her achievements as a mentor and a professor. "Madeleine JoulliZ is the epitome of the best Ph.D. education at Penn," Vice Provost for Graduate Education Janice Madden said. "The real people who make graduate education work at Penn are the Madeleine JoulliZ's of the world." GSAC President Ina Warriner, a fifth-year doctoral candidate in Demography, and Bo Liang, a third-year Chemistry graduate student and vice president for School of Arts and Sciences Affairs on the GSAC executive board, opened the ceremony by recognizing all those who have worked hard to further graduate study and research. Warriner and Phi Lambda Upsilon President Lida Gifford, a second-year Chemistry graduate student, presented JoulliZ with a plaque to mark the occasion. Warriner noted that although JoulliZ has been recognized before by science professionals and organizations around the world, "this is from the graduate students and that is a professor's legacy." JoulliZ also emphasized the importance of receiving an award from students. "This is a very valuable award for me because it comes from students," she said. "[Having this come] from the students is like [having it come] from my children." JoulliZ has contributed to the development and reputation of Penn's Chemistry Department by authoring three books, writing for over 200 publications and holding the Class of 1970 Endowed Chair. The presentation of the plaque was followed by a lecture -- which was part of the annual lecture series by the GSAC Science Projects Committee -- given by Penn alumnus Ronald Yocum, president and chief executive officer of the American Plastics Council. Yocum's lecture, entitled, "The Wages of Bad Science Run Rampant," focused on the public's shift in belief from sound scientific ideas to media-hyped junk science, which he termed "chemophobia." "The public perception of science is changing," Yocum said. "The voice of science is drowned out by? activists." He blamed the "wholesale rejection of science" on small activist groups such as Greenpeace that are "anti-industry for the sake of being anti-industry? and anti-chemical for the sake of being anti-chemical." Yocum expressed the need for the public to become aware of the "misinformation" about science the media portrays. Citing statistics of child death rates and life expectancy, Yocum asked, "If man-made chemicals are really turning [up risks], why are we all so much healthier than those who lived without these things?"

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