Allen J. Bard

Allen Joseph Bard (born December 18, 1933) is an American chemist. He is the Hackerman-Welch Regents Chair Professor of chemistry and director of the Center for Electrochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin.^[1] Bard is considered the “father of modern electrochemistry" for his innovative work developing the scanning electrochemical microscope, his co-discovery of electrochemiluminescence, his key contributions to photoelectrochemistry of semiconductor electrodes, and authoring a seminal textbook.^[2]

Early Life and Education

Allen J. Bard was born in New York City on December 18, 1933. He attended the Bronx High School of Science and graduated from the City College of New York in 1955. He then attended Harvard University, where he earned a Masters (1956) and a PhD (1958).

Research

In 1958 Bard began working at the University of Texas at Austin and has continued there for his entire career. However, he took a sabbatical in 1973 and worked in the lab of Jean-Michel Savéant. He also spent a semester at the California Institute of Technology as a Sherman Mills Fairchild Scholar. He lectured at Cornell University for the spring term in 1987 as a Baker Lecturer. In 1988 he served as the Robert Burns Woodward visiting professor at Harvard University.

Bard has published more than 800 peer-reviewed research papers, 75 publications, and has more than 23 patents. He has written three books: Chemical Equilibrium; Electrochemical Methods - Fundamentals and Applications, and Integrated Chemical Systems: A Chemical Approach to Nanotechnology.

The Center for Electrochemistry was founded in 2006 in order to create a cooperative and collaborative group between the different types of concentrations in electrochemistry. Bard and his group were one of the original researchers to take advantage of electrochemistry to create light. The creation of light produced a sensitive method of analysis that can now be applied to a wide variety of biological and medical uses, including determining if an individual has an HIV and analyzing DNA. The Bard group also “applies electrochemical methods to the study of chemical problems, conducting investigations in electro-organic chemistry, photoelectrochemistry, electrogenerated chemiluminescence, and electroanalytical chemistry.”

Personal

Bard is married to Fran Bard, with two children, Ed and Sara, and four grandchildren, Alex, Marlee, Rachel, and Dylan.

Awards

Among Bard's awards are the Priestley Medal in 2002^[3] and the 2008 Wolf Prize in Chemistry.^[4] He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1990.^[5]

On February 1, 2013 President Barack Obama presented Allen Bard and John Goodenough with National Medals of Science, one of the highest honors a scientist can hope to receive from the United States government. The medal honors people who have made incredible contributions to either science or engineering. “I am proud to honor these inspiring American innovators,” Obama said. “They represent the ingenuity and imagination that has long made this nation great — and they remind us of the enormous impact a few good ideas can have when these creative qualities are unleashed in an entrepreneurial environment (The University of Texas at Austin Know).”

On January 13, 2014, Dr. Allen Bard was awarded the Enrico Fermi Award along with Dr. Andrew Sessler.^[6]

References

External links

• Center for Electrochemistry at UT
• The Bard Group at UT
• "Goodenough, Bard Win National Medals of Science"

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