Paaren and Moriarty Graduate Fellowships in Chemistry

About the Fellowship

Paaren awards are given to up-and-coming PhD students for their outstanding academic accomplishments in any area of chemistry. Moriarty awards are given to up-and-coming PhD students for their outstanding academic accomplishments in the field of organic chemistry. To be eligible, students must have already advanced to candidacy for the PhD in the Department of Chemistry. Up to three Paaren Fellows and two Moriarty Fellows are awarded each year. The award recipients will receive the research assistantship for one full semester, including the tuition and fee waiver.

About our Donor

Dr. Herbert E. Paaren is a synthetic organic chemist with extensive research and administrative experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Dr. Paaren received his Ph.D. in “Steroid Photochemistry” at the University of Illinois-Chicago in 1976. As a NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the lab of Prof. Hector DeLuca, he developed numerous novel synthetic procedures for the manufacture of biologically active forms of Vitamin D. Over the last 30 years Dr. Paaren has been a named inventor on 15 patents and has published 27 articles and abstracts related to his research. Many of these patented processes became the foundation for the business venture Tetrionics, Inc.

Tetrionics was incorporated in 1990 with Peter O. Johnson Sr., Dr. Paaren and Prof. Hector DeLuca as founding partners. Tetrionics specialized in FDA approved contract manufacturing of high potency Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API’s). In 2004, Sigma-Aldrich acquired Tetrionics, and Paaren and his wife, Denise Marino, launched an endowment at UIC’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to fund graduate student fellowships and summer internships for undergraduates interested in chemical sciences. In 2018, Paaren and Marino also made a generous gift in support of chemistry curriculum and laboratory enhancements.

Over the past 15 years, Paaren and Marino have made supporting UIC's Department of Chemistry one of their top priorities.

Nomination Process

Nominations must be made by students’ academic mentors. Students must have already advanced to candidacy for the PhD in the Department of Chemistry. To secure the standard tuition & fee waiver, students must be appointed as minimum 25% TA/RA in the awarded term. Each faculty member can nominate one of their graduate students for either a Paaren or a Moriarty fellowship. Students carrying out graduate work in any branch of chemistry will be considered.

Nominations must include:

1. Advisor’s nomination letter
2. Student nominee's Annual Report (updated to include any subsequent publications and presentations)
3. Student nominee’s Research Statement (maximum one page)

Nominations should be e-mailed as a single pdf file to DGS by the designated time.

Decision & Acceptance Requirements:

The awardees will be selected by Associate Head, DGS, and ADGS for either the Moriarty (synthetic chemistry) or Paaren (all other chemistry) fellowship. Awardees will be announced promptly after the evaluation. Awardees should sign and return the award letter to the Department.