Professors Goetz and Kumler honored for research

French Professor Thomas H. Goetz and Chemistry Professor Philip L. Kumler of SUNY Fredonia were among the 44 professors from 18 campuses honored for research and scholarship at a dinner in Albany on Wednesday, May 3.

The highest honor given by the SUNY Research Foundation, the annual Research and Scholarship awards recognize the successes of faculty who have won outside funding for their research, published and presented their results in significant forums, involved students in their research program, and are well-known and respected by other scholars and researchers.

Dr. Goetz, a SUNY Distinguished Service Professor since 1991, has written extensively on the subject of 19th century French literature, and received several grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the French government and the U.S. Department of Education. He founded the journal “Nineteenth-Century French Studies” in 1972 and received international recognition for organizing the annual Colloquium on Nineteenth-Century French Studies, which he initiated at SUNY Fredonia in 1975. Dr. Goetz was awarded the esteemed rank of Officier in the French Order of Academic Palms in 1989. He is currently preparing a research paper entitled “Physiognomy, Photography and Marriage: Thomas Graindorge’s Proposal for ‘une bourse matrimoniale’ from Taine’s ‘Notes sur Paris,’” which he will present in October at the 32nd annual Colloquium on Nineteenth-Century French Studies at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind.

A past recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Dr. Kumler will retire in August after 30 years in the Department of Chemistry. During his career, he supervised more than 100 undergraduate research students, 23 of whom went on to earn their doctorates. Dr. Kumler has also written over 45 refereed publications, many with undergraduate co-authors. He is currently studying the chemistry of Concord grapes and grape products, including the importance of resveratrol – a naturally occurring substance that may lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. Furthermore, Dr. Kumler has been directly responsible for the donation of roughly $500,000 worth of research equipment from companies employing Department of Chemistry alumni since 1999. He maintains an extensive alumni database and moderates a listserv of departmental graduates that currently includes an estimated 300 subscribers.

The SUNY Research Foundation is a nonprofit educational corporation that assists campus efforts to increase their volume of research and protect university-developed intellectual property while providing administrative support for faculty research and promoting philanthropy among individuals, corporations and foundations.