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 Joshua R. Farrell is the first person to hold the Thomas
E. D’Ambra Professorship in Chemistry at the College of the Holy Cross;
it was conferred on him in September 2002. Several interesting strands
bind him to the professorship’s namesake.
Farrell, like D’Ambra, is a Holy Cross alumnus, having
graduated with honors in 1994. He, too, has an ongoing connection to the
University at Albany, where his father still works—as a special assistant
to the president and as director of academic affairs. He affectionately
remembers U Albany’s Uptown Campus, from his childhood—a classic
example of late 1960s institutional architecture—as “the largest
slab of cement in the free world.”
His teaching interests combine both inorganic—chemistry
of metals—and organic chemistry—chemistry of carbon. “Half
of my students,” he says “spend their time studying bioinorganic
systems. Basically the active sites of the proteins and enzymes in your
body usually have a metal center that does the interesting chemistry. We
try to prepare small molecule models of these complex biological systems
either to carry out the same reaction or try and determine how a particular
protein works. The other half of my group does research related to supramolecular
chemistry, trying to find new methods for preparing molecules with complex
topologies.”
Professor Ronald M. Jarret, the current chair of the chemistry
department, has been particularly pleased with the expanded opportunities
the D’Ambra Professorship has provided.
“Establishment of the Thomas E. D’Ambra Professorship
has allowed the chemistry department to expand its course offerings and
year-round research opportunities for undergraduates,” he says. “An
exciting new course in nanotechnology was offered last semester to a variety
of science majors. It was well received and is expected to enter the regular
rotation cycle of course offerings. Research projects now exist in the
fields of supramolecular chemistry—novel synthetic method development—and
bioinorganic chemistry—enzyme active site modeling. Students have
already shown interest in these important projects. The new faculty position
has allowed the chemistry department to grow in key areas of current scientific
and societal interest.”
Chemist and Entrepreneur Tom D’Ambra ’78
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