Pennington receives Governor's Award

William Pennington, Jr., professor of chemistry, has received the 2002 Governor's Award for Excellence in Science Awareness. Penington was honored for his outstanding work in research outreach to high school and undergraduate students through his Summer Undergraduate Research Programs (SURP), which are sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). His research outreach is motivated by the belief that the primary responsibility of the sciences is research and that research should be integrated into the education of our undergraduate students and gifted high school students. Dr. Pennington received a B.A. in Chemistry in 1977 from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas in 1983.

Pennington joined the Clemson University chemistry faculty as director of the Molecular Structure Center in 1987. He rose through the faculty ranks to his present rank of professor of chemistry. He extended his integrated research and teaching philosophy to students in the southeast and the nation by establishing one of the largest NSF-supported SURPs. One of the reasons Pennington has been so successful in coupling his research with outreach and education, is that he has an extraordinary record of scholarship with over 206 publications, over 160 presentations and his research has received over $3M in external support. He is highly respected by his peers, and last year was named editor of the Journal of Chemical Crystallography. In 2000, he received the College of Engineering and Science Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Sciences.