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December 4 , 2006
Heilbrun Fellowship funds continuing scholarship, research for former faculty

by kim urquhart

The Heilbrun Distinguished Emeritus Fellowship is allowing two former Emory professors to continue and advance the research they have pursued throughout their careers.

H. Lawrence Clever, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, and Robert Kysar, Bandy Professor Emeritus of Preaching and New Testament in the Candler School and Graduate Division of Religion, are the most recent recipients of the award, which carries a $10,000 stipend and includes workspace in Woodruff Library.

The fellows were honored at an on-campus reception last month, sponsored by the Emeritus College. Named in honor of Alfred Heilbrun Jr., professor emeritus in the Department of Psychology, the yearlong fellowship is now in its sixth year. The grant is administered by Emory College but reflects the Emeritus College’s mission to strengthen the ties between Emory and retired faculty members.

The fellowship is invaluable, said English professor John Bugge, chair of the fellowship selection committee. “It’s good for morale to know that someone still values your contribution and that you can still submit a grant proposal and do some research, even if you are over 65,” Bugge said.

“It knocked the socks off of me to be chosen,” said Kysar, who spent five years in the Candler School of Theology. He has been very active writing and publishing since his retirement in 1999, and said he’s become particularly interested in postmodernist thought.

Kysar is using the Heilbrun fellowship to write a book on postmodernism in the Gospel of John, his area of specialty in New Testament studies. It will be his nineteenth book.

The stipend will help support Kysar’s commute to Emory from his home in Flowery Branch, about 40 miles north of Atlanta. He also plans to use it for other research expenses.

Clever, who joined Emory’s chemistry faculty in 1954 and retired in 1992 has a different focus. At Emory, his research interests have centered on thermodynamics, with projects in gas solubility, surface tension, enthalpies of mixing and light scattering.

Clever is using his Heilbrun fellowship to research the solubility of gases. He is combing the literature in Emory’s chemistry library to organize and compile a “detailed handbook” on the solubility of oxygen gases and liquids so that other researchers may use the data “quickly and conveniently.”

Clever explained that his research is part of a much larger project that ties into his work with the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry’s Solubility Data Project, in which he played a founding role. The handbook Clever is working on will serve as an update to an earlier volume on oxygen gases, augmented by 25 years of new data.

Clever said he is grateful for the funding, as this type of research usually lacks financial support. Kysar agreed: “It is a fine gift from Emeritus Professor Heilbrun.”

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