Guggenheim's legacy came to Oklahoma this year as a chemistry professor was recognized with a national award for research.
Donna Nelson, associate professor of chemistry, was one of 184 artists, scientists and scholars throughout the United States and Canada honored. An average of $37,000 was awarded this year, totaling $6.75 million, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation stated in a press release.
Each recipient, or Guggenheim Fellow, is appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past with promise for future accomplishment. It was decided by recommendations from hundreds of expert advisers and approved by a board of trustees, the foundation said. Nelson said she thinks her work on diversity studies contributed to her winning this fellowship. Dr. Ann Beutel, assistant professor of sociology, is collaborating with her on the project.
The Guggenheim Fellowship program has granted millions of dollars in fellowships to more than 15,200 people since 1925. It was named after John Simon Guggenheim. He is the son of the late Sen. Simon Guggenheim of Colorado and nephew of the art collector Solomon Guggenheim, who founded the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
Nelson said she is on sabbatical at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. She has been traveling between OU and MIT through her Ford Foundation Fellowship, which she won in the fall.
"It's really a thrill to have both of those fellowships," Nelson said.
Her Guggenheim Fellowship was awarded for her study on mechanisms of additions to alkenes. Alkenes are a group of aliphatic hydrocarbons whose molecules contain one or more carbon-carbon double bonds. Nelson said the transition from her studies involved with the Ford Fellowship to her bench work involved with her Guggenheim award is only linked by the female and minority aspect of her work.
It is great to be one of the first OU minority and female professors to win the Guggenheim award, Nelson said. Vic Hutchison, zoology professor, is the only other Guggenheim Fellow at OU that she said she knew of.
Nelson's work with diversity has led her to spending her fellowship time at MIT lecturing to various groups about her findings. Most of her time speaking has been because of the University of Michigan case that is before the U.S. Supreme Court. The court will decide if the admissions policies at the university are constitutional.
Nelson was the only female faculty member outside of the representatives from the MIT Nine, a group of nine universities that pledged at MIT to work at promoting diversity, at a recent dinner, according to the MIT provost's office. The nine universities include Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Berkely, MIT, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan and California Tech. It was an amazing experience to speak at the meeting with representatives from those prestigious universities, Nelson said.
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