| |
1978-79 › Ralph Becker
1st Farfel Recipient
Department of Chemistry
Professor of Chemistry, Faculty Emeritus
College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
When Professor Ralph Becker retired in
1992 after 35 years with the University of Houston, he didn’t
stop working. Besides operating a bed and breakfast inn in Eureka
Springs, Arkansas, with his wife, he took positions with the University
of Arkansas, the New University of Lisbon’s Institute of Chemistry
and Biology, and the University of Perugia, Italy. He continues
to teach special courses and conduct research in photophysics and
photochemistry.
At UH, Professor Becker studied the molecular
level changes in the first steps of the visual process. His work
today is challenging long held precepts in the study of light, providing
scientists with a coherent story on how molecules dispose of their
excited-state energy when excited by light and verifying a model
he first proposed while at UH. His expanded model provides the basis
for photochemical control, while his research in Portugal in photo
bio-sensitizers will create new methods for killing bacteria, fungi,
viruses, and cancer cells.
Since the 1960s Professor Becker has been
a visiting professor at universities throughout Europe, Asia, South
America, and the United States. In 1980 and 1981 the American Chemistry
Society recognized him for his contributions to photophysics and
photochemistry. The first Farfel Award recipient, Professor Becker
says the prize was a significant factor pushing him toward some
of the “quantum jumps” in his research. Quantum leaps
require one to “think more fundamentally than with the analytical
mind,” he explains. “It requires curiosity, intuition,
and the intense desire to really know what’s going on. It requires
the confidence to believe that it is possible to achieve.”
Next recipient |
