Congratulations to Samy El-Shall & Maryanne Collinson

July 31, 2017

From the Dean:

”It is my distinct honor to congratulate two of our distinguished faculty members: Dr. M. Samy El Shall, who has been appointed by the President and the Board of Visitors as the Mary Eugenia Kapp Chair in Chemistry, and Dr. Maryann Collinson, who has been appointed as the John B. Fenn Professor in Chemistry effective June 23, 2017. These appointments recognize Samy and Maryann’s exemplary contributions to teaching, research and public service.

The Mary Eugenia Kapp Chair in Chemistry was established by a bequest from emerita faculty member, Mary Eugenia Kapp, Ph.D. Dr. Kapp joined the faculty of Richmond Professional Institute as assistant professor of chemistry and chair of the chemistry department in 1940. She continued in this position when RPI and the Medical College of Virginia (MCV) merged to become Virginia Commonwealth University in 1968 and until her retirement after 29 years of service in 1972.

The John B. Fenn Professorship in Chemistry was established in 2004 by the College of Humanities and Sciences and a donor-advised fund in honor of Dr. Fenn’s contributions to chemistry. Dr. Fenn was an esteemed faculty member in the Department of Chemistry and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002 for his work with Koichi Tanaka, “for their development of soft desorption ionisation methods for mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules.” The John B. Fenn Professorship is awarded to faculty with a focus on analytical chemistry.

I am so pleased that the Board of Visitors and the President have recognized the invaluable contributions these two faculty members make to the field of chemistry, the College, and the University. I feel very privileged to count them as colleagues, and I wish to offer them my sincerest congratulations and thank them for their years of service to the University which have led to these great honors.”