04/24/03
Transcript Staff
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An associate professor of chemistry at the University of Oklahoma has been named a 2003 Guggenheim Fellow.

Donna J. Nelson is one of 184 artists, scholars and scientists selected from more than 3,200 applicants for awards totaling $6.75 million.

The fellowships were announced earlier this month by Guggenheim Foundation president Edward Hirsch.

Nelson, received her BS in chemistry at OU. She obtained her PhD in chemistry at the University of Texas and did postdoctorate studies at Purdue University.

She joined the OU faculty in 1983.

She has an active research group in physical organic chemistry, in which she has developed a new synthetically useful technique for gathering mechanistic information on addition reactions of alkenes.

She is the recipient of a Sigma Xi Faculty Research Award and a Ford Foundation Fellowship.

Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment.

The new Fellows include writers, painters, sculptors, photographers, filmmakers, choreographers, physical and biological scientists, social scientists and humanities scholars.

Many of the individuals, like Nelson, hold appointments in colleges and universities, with 89 institutions represented by one or more Fellows.

Since 1925, the Foundation has granted more than $220 million in Fellowships to more than 15,200 individuals.