Thomas J. Meyer, Arey Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill has been on the UNC faculty for 37 years in various capacities including Vice Chancellor for Graduate Studies and Research and Kenan Professor of Chemistry. In 2000, he was named Associate Director for Strategic Research at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico. In 2005, he rejoined the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill chemistry faculty where he now resides.
At Los Alamos Meyer was responsible for the oversight and management of a large part of the R&D portfolio including research in support of the Laboratory’s nuclear weapons, threat reduction and energy and environment missions.
At LANL he oversaw industrial interactions and economic development, intellectual property, educational programs, the Energy and Environment Council, and LANL program offices in Science, Energy and Environment, and Nuclear Technology and Applications. At UNC, he oversaw a graduate and professional student program of over 8,000 students and a research portfolio of more than $300 million. He led planning efforts that resulted in campus-wide initiatives in genomics and bioinformatics, Arts Carolina, enhanced graduate student support from the State of North Carolina, and through a bond issue, for the science complex and other campus construction projects.
Meyer was a NATO postdoctoral fellow at University College, London in 1967, joined the faculty at UNC in 1968, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1972, Full Professor in 1975, Smith Professor in 1982 and Kenan Professor in 1987. He was the Head of Chemistry from 1985 to 1990, Chair of the Curriculum in Applied Sciences from 1994 to 1997, and Vice Chancellor/Vice Provost for Graduate Studies and Research from 1994 to 1999. He served on the North Carolina Board of Science and Technology, the Executive Committees of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, the Research Triangle Institute, and the Triangle University Center for Advanced Study Inc., and on the Board of Associated Universities Inc. He has served on the Boards of the Mind Institute, the International Informatics Society, the National Center for Genome Research, the Coronado Ventures Forum, the Science and Technology External Advisory Board of Sandia National Laboratory and the Commission on Higher Education for the State of New Mexico.
Meyer is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has won many awards for his research in chemistry and was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine for service to the State of North Carolina. Meyer received his bachelor’s and doctorate in chemistry from Ohio University (1963) and Stanford University, (1966) respectively. He has published over 570 papers, holds three patents and has been one of the most highly cited chemists in the world.
More about the Distinguished Summer Lectures in Inorganic Chemistry
