ANN ARBOR—Three University of Michigan faculty members were given the emeritus title by the U-M Regents at their Feb. 17 meeting.

Those retiring are Richard G. Lawton, professor of chemistry; Sujit K. Pandit, professor of anesthesiology; and Chung-Tuo Shih, associate professor of mathematics.

Lawton joined the U-M faculty in 1962. “His research interests are highly varied,” the Regents said. “Early in his career at Michigan, he developed strategies for the synthesis of strained aromatic compounds. He synthesized the first bowl-shaped compound called corannulene that has the same carbon skeleton as a portion of the framework as buckminsterfullerene or Buckyball. A continuing interest of his research is the design, synthesis, and chemistry of reagents and structures which serve as tools for the identification of interactions between reactive functional groups on peptide and protein chains. This theme has had universal applications for organic, bioorganic, and molecular biochemistry.”

Pandit, who joined the U-M faculty in 1976, “has published more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals. As a result of his contributions to the field of ambulatory anesthesia, the Department of Anesthesiology is well-known at the national and international levels. The National Society of Ambulatory Anesthesia honored him by electing him president for 1997-98. He has been an esteemed colleague who has encouraged and helped many young faculty members to develop their careers as academic anesthesiologists. He has been a role model in many ways, but the role in which he will be missed most is that of a dedicated and compassionate physician who always taught and practiced quality patient care.”

Shih joined the U-M faculty in 1966. “During most of his career, he has worked in the area of probabilistic potential theory, otherwise known as the general theory of Markov Processes. This is an outgrowth of the surprising discovery that two quite distinct branches of physics, Brownian motion and Newtonian potential, have an intimate mathematical connection. Some of Prof. Shih’s early publications have been described as among the deepest in the field and as marking a turning point in its development. For much of his time at Michigan, he has been the mainstay of the program in probability. In his teaching, he concentrated his efforts on the courses in probability at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and was responsible for several changes and developments in these courses.”

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Regentschemistry