Umit Ozkan bestowed with Distinguished University Professor honor by Board of Trustees

Posted: August 25, 2021

Johnson, Ozkan and Gilliam — Ohio State University President Kristina M. Johnson, College of Engineering Distinguished Professor and Department Chair Umit S. Ozkan, and Executive Vice President and Provost Melissa L. Gilliam pause for a photo following the Board of Trustees meeting during which Ozkan officially received the additional honorific title of Distinguished University Professor.

In a public Board of Trustees meeting held on August 19, 2021, College of Engineering Distinguished Professor and Department Chair Umit S. Ozkan was one of two faculty who received the highest faculty honor at The Ohio State University: being named a Distinguished University Professor.

Johnson presents DUP medal to ozkan — President Johnson congratulates Professor Ozkan after presenting her with the Distinguished University Professor medal

Executive Vice President and Provost Melissa L. Gilliam presided over the event, during which President Kristina M. Johnson presented a medal to each of the two faculty. The other faculty member who received the honor was Professor Martha Chamallas from the Moritz College of Law.

Professor Ozkan is internationally recognized and highly cited for her work in unravelling the complex processes that mediate chemical and electrochemical reactions, specifically her ground-breaking research in heterogeneous catalysis. Her goal, ultimately, is to design catalysts with the desired molecular architecture for specific reactions. This finds application, for example, in catalytic water treatment to decontaminate groundwater and in the development of alternative electrocatalyst materials for cleaner, environmentally-friendly fuel cells. Her work has yielded real-world applications, most notably in the form of a company founded by former advisee Paul Matter (‘01 BS, ‘06 PhD), whose company, pH Matter, LLC, develops and commercializes carbon-based materials for emerging applications related to energy efficiency using technology developed in Professor Ozkan's laboratory.

During the Board of Trustees meeting, Provost Melissa L. Gilliam, MD, introduced Dr. Ozkan and showed a short video interview featuring Professor Ozkan. In it, Dr. Ozkan describes her roots, career trajectory, and research goals in her chosen field of chemical engineering, from her earliest days as a young girl in Turkey, to becoming the first woman at Ohio State to join the chemical engineering faculty, to her signature research achievements and pursuit of achieving greater efficiency in the production of chemicals and energy sources that do not harm the environment.

Umit and Erdal Ozkan — Erdal and Umit Ozkan

Ozkan expressed gratitude to her parents, who encouraged her very early in life; her husband Erdal Ozkan, who has been "her rock"; and her students, from whom she continually learns.

The permanent, honorific title of Distinguished University Professor includes automatic membership in the President’s and Provost’s Advisory Committee. In addition, the Office of Academic Affairs designates a one-time cash award of $30,000 to be used for scholarly work. To date, only 68 faculty members have held the Distinguished University Professor title.

The Distinguished University Professor program has a rigorous selection process that begins each August. The Office of Academic Affairs sends a call for nominations to recommend faculty for this honor. Department chairs, school directors or faculty awards committees forward their nominations to their college deans. Deans develop a college review process, solicit support letters nationally and internationally and forward their final nomination decisions to the OAA office.