Ziurys First Female to Win Morino Lectureship

Lori Stiles
Oct. 25, 1999


Lucy Ziurys, University of Arizona professor of astronomy and chemistry, is the first female scientist to receive the Morino Lectureship from the University of Tokyo for her scientific work in the field of molecular spectroscopy and its application to astrochemistry.

Ziurys was nominated for the award in the fall of 1998 and given the lectureship in December 1998. She received $6,000 to be used for travel expenses for a trip to Japan.

Past lecturers to win the prestigious award have included Nobel Prize winner and Professor Robert Curl of Rice University and Professor Gispert Winnewisser of Universitat Koeln in Germany.

The Morino Lectureship was established in 1985 by the late Professor Yonezo Morino, a famous Japanese molecular spectroscopist, to support and encourage young scientists in the field of molecular science. It was also designed to give the opportunity for a foreign distinguished scientist to come to the University of Tokyo to instruct young scientists and students who are working in the frontier of various fields of molecular science.

According to Ziurys, the Japanese scientific community has had a long-standing tradition of expertise in molecular spectroscopy and using it to study the chemistry of the interstellar medium.

"I feel this is a great honor. The Japanese scientific community has had a long-standing tradition of excellence in molecular spectroscopy ... especially since the founding of Nobeyama Radio Observatory. I am very pleased that I was chosen for the lectureship," said Ziurys.

Ziurys is very active in the fields of molecular spectroscopy and using it to study the chemistry of the interstellar medium. In fact, according to Ziurys, she has been directly involved in the discovery of at least 10 percent of all interstellar molecules in interstellar space.

"My research activities (in astrochemistry) combine both laboratory work and radio astronomy, and this is very rare," said Ziurys.

Ziurys joined the UA in December 1996. She received her doctorate in chemical physics, physical chemistry and physics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1984.

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