Klier honored by journal

Klier, University Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, has, in his 35-year career at Lehigh, served as director of the Zettlemoyer Center for Surface Studies and chair of the chemistry department.
The issue, Catalysis: Surface Centers and Mechanisms, contains papers presented at the 74th Colloid and Surface Science Symposium of the American Chemical Society, held last year at Lehigh.
The issue was edited by Richard G. Herman, principal research scientist at Lehigh’s Zettlemoyer Center and Jule Rabo, retired corporate scientist with Union Carbide Corp. and a former member of the visiting committee of Lehigh’s department of chemistry.
Four of the 18 articles in the special issue were authored or co-authored by Lehigh faculty and graduate students.
During his Lehigh career, Klier has written more than 250 journal articles and presented papers at more than 200 seminars and lectures. He also holds five U.S. patents, including four with Herman.
Klier’s research focuses on the relations between the physical properties of solids, their surface structure and chemical properties, and their ability to guide chemical reactions. The catalysts he has investigated include metals, metal oxides, metal sulfides and zeolites.
Among Klier’s many awards are the Union Carbide Award for Innovative Chemistry for 1981-86, the Excellence in Research Award from the Catalysis Society of Metropolitan New York (1983), the Langmuir Lectureship from the American Chemical Society (1987) and the Burwell Lectureship in Catalysis from the North American Catalysis Society (1991).
In 1984, Klier received Lehigh’s Libsch Distinguished Research Award. He has received two awards from the Czech Academy of Sciences: the Brdicka Lecturer (1992) and the Heyrovsky Medal (1997).
In 1973, Klier was named an Outstanding Educator of America.
--Kurt Pfitzer
kap4@lehigh.edu