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In Memoriam
Seyhan Nurettin Ege
Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and Professor Emerita of Chemistry, Age 76, of Ann Arbor passed away at her home on September 13, 2007. Born in Ankara, Turkey, on January 11, 1931, Seyhan Ege spent her early childhood in New York where her father, Ragip Nurettin Ege, represented the Turkish Republic as Cultural Attache to the United States of America. After returning to Istanbul upon the advent of WW II, Seyhan attended the American College for Girls, graduating with honors. In 1950 she came to the United States and attended Smith College, receiving a Masters Degree in Chemistry in 1952 and subsequently she received her Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Michigan with Peter A. S. Smith in 1956. After teaching briefly at her Alma Mater in Istanbul and subsequently at Mount Holyoke College, Dr Ege returned to the University of Michigan in 1965, and became became the first tenured woman and the first woman full professor on the faculty of the Chemistry Department. Her research interests involved the photochemistry of heterocyclic compounds and reactive intermediates in photochemical reactions. She retired from the faculty in 2001.
Professor Ege was a distinguished educator, promoting innovative approaches to the teaching of chemistry. She authored a textbook, "Organic Chemistry: Structure and Reactivity" which has appeared in five editions, between 1984-2004, and has been translated into Spanish, Italian and Chinese. She was widely acknowledged as contributing to the modernization of the way organic chemistry is taught, particularly for: the use of acid-base chemistry as an early introduction to structure-reactivity relationships, the emphasis on mechanism as a conceptual organizer, and the rigorous use of the primary literature in writing an introductory textbook. She served the Chemistry Department in many capacities, as a dedicated teacher and as its first Associate Chair for Curriculum and Faculty Affairs. Between 1989-91, she led the implementation of the Chemistry Department’s undergraduate curriculum reform, which eliminated General Chemistry for large numbers of incoming students and started them off in the Organic course, and reduced the General course to one semester for the rest of the entering students. Nationally, she co-authored the 1994 NSF Report “Innovation and Change in the Chemistry Curriculum” (NSF 94-19), and was the General Chair of the 16th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education (Ann Arbor, 2000).
Professor Ege received the Amoco, Phi Lambda Upsilon, and the Chemical Manufacturers Association Excellence in College Chemistry Teaching Awards and was named Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in 1990. A strong advocate for women, she was one of the founders of WISE, the Women in Science and Engineering Program at the University of Michigan. Annually, the WISE Program provides an undergraduate award to an outstanding woman or underrepresented minority student in her name. For her scholarship, innovation in teaching and tireless effort on behalf of women students, she was the 2003 recipient of the Sarah Goddard Power Award from the Academic Women's Caucus of the University of Michigan. During her long career, she has been a committed and inspiring mentor to students and younger colleagues. Those whose lives she touched were enriched by her energy, enthusiasm, wide and varied interests.
A long time member of the Anthroposophic community of Ann Arbor, Professor Ege was very active in the development of the Rudolf Steiner House and the Rudolf Steiner Schools. Following her 2001 retirement from teaching at the university, she devoted her pedagogic talents to teaching chemistry at the Rudolf Steiner High School. Professor Ege is survived by her sister and brother-in-law, Gunes Ege M.D. and Turgut A. Akter of Toronto, her many relatives in Turkey, her colleagues and students, and a wide circle of devoted friends. In her honor, the University of Michigan Department of Chemistry has established a fund to create the Seyhan N. Ege Junior Faculty Development Award, which will be used to recognize junior faculty members on their teaching accomplishments.
A public memorial
service was held on September 17, 2007.
Memorial gifts may be made payable
to the "University of Michigan" and noting the "Seyhan
Ege Endowment Fund" in the memo. Send to:
Mr Tim Wade, University of Michigan, Department of Chemistry,
c/o Seyhan N Ege Endowment Fund, 930 North University
Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1055. The department will
use the funds to establish a permanent endowment that
will support the Seyhan N. Ege Junior Faculty Development
Award.
"The Fund represents a gift for
endowment, and distributions from the Fund shall be made
in accordance with the University's then existing endowment
distribution policy.".
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