Alumni Awards
2015
Ellis Unger, '76 B.S. Chemistry, College of Science and Mathematics.
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Ellis R. Unger, M.D., is Director of the Office of Drug Evaluation-I, Office of New Drugs (OND). Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dr. Unger obtained his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati, and received postdoctoral training at the Medical College of Virginia (internal medicine) and The Johns Hopkins Hospital (clinical cardiology). Dr. Unger was a senior investigator in the cardiology branch of NIH's Nation Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute from 1983 to 1997, where he directed a research program in angiogenesis, developing new approaches for the treatment of coronary artery disease and peripheral vascular disease. From 1997 to 2003, he served as medical officer, team leader, and subsequently branch chief in the Office of Therapeutics Research and Review (OTRR) in the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. In 2003, Dr. Unger assumed the responsibilities of Deputy Director, Division of Cardiovascular and Renal Products, in CDER. He served as FDA representative to CIOMS Working Group VII, and presently represents the agency on the International Conference on Harmonization Expert Working Group, E2F, the Development Safety Update Report intended to standardize periodic reporting on drugs under development. Dr. Unger has authored, co-authored, and edited numerous scientific articles and is a co-holder of two patents. Congratulations to Dr. Unger on recognition of his distinguished career.
2011
Russell A. Gaudiana, '69 M.S., College of Science and Mathematics.
Russell Gaudiana earned a Ph.D. in photochemistry from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) in 1973, an M.S. in polymer chemistry from Wright State University in 1969 and a B.S. in chemistry from Seton Hall University in 1966.
Dr. Gaudiana is vice president of research and development for Konarka Technologies. There, he is responsible for new research concepts, for developing Konarka’s extensive IP portfolio of over 200 patents and patent applications in chemistry, cell and module architecture and product applications, and for government grants and contracts.
Dr. Gaudiana joined Konarka in 2001, bringing 27 years of experience in basic and applied research at the Polaroid Corporation where he was director of the Chemical Research Division from 1995 to 2001. He led the research and development work needed to establish Konarka’s viability as a company when it was founded, resulting in many patent applications, early prototypes, and a multi-million dollar round of venture capital funding and government contracts. His current responsibilities center on early-stage research programs such as NIR absorbing polymers, photovoltaic fibers, water and oxygen barriers and transparent electrodes.
Dr. Gaudiana holds 60 U.S. patents and over 50 U.S. pending patent applications. He has authored or co-authored more than 60 publications in photochemistry, polymer liquid crystals, OLEDs, desalination membranes, polymer optics, imaging systems and photovoltaics.
He serves as an adjunct professor at University of Massachusetts (Lowell), and was an adjunct professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He currently serves on the National Academy of Sciences and National Research Council, and he is the executive editor of the Journal of Macromolecular Science—Pure and Applied Chemistry.
2010
Shelley Coldiron, ’77 B.S., ’87 M.S., College of Science and Mathematics.
Dr. Shelley Coldiron has used her training at Wright State in biology and chemistry as the framework for a successful entrepreneurial career serving the private and public sectors.
Coldiron, the 2010 Outstanding Alumni Award winner from the College of Science and Mathematics, is the co-founder and chief technology officer for Nanopartz, an innovative producer of gold nanoparticle-based products that are applied to the life sciences in diagnostics, imaging, and therapeutics.
It all started for Dr. Coldiron, whose career spans more than 30 years, with a bachelor’s degree in biology from Wright State in 1977. While an undergraduate, she successfully pursued a National Science Foundation grant as a co-author of a proposal to study the effects of a natural bog system in cleaning the runoff from coal mining tailing pile wastes in Zanesville. She later earned a master’s degree in analytical chemistry from Wright State and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at Iowa State.
Along the way, she worked at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Environmental Testing and Certification in Raritan, New Jersey, and completed research that led to the development of a patented portable fiber optic photometer.
Dr. Coldiron co-founded Advanced Analytical Technologies Inc. and successfully raised $3 million in private equity to develop food safety testing technologies. She then co-founded CombiSep Inc., which develops and manufactures analytical instrumentation for high throughput screening and separations in drug discovery, combinatorial chemistry, high throughput process chemistry and biochemistry, clinical chemistry, and proteomics. Dr. Coldiron generated more than $6.5 million in funding for CombiSep from government grants and loans, commercial and private loans, and private equity.
2008
Dr. Jeanne McHale, Receives 2008 Outstanding Alumni Award
Dr. Jeanne McHale is the proud recipient of the College of Science and Mathematics' 2008 Outstanding Alumni Award. The Outstanding Alumni Award is given to those recognized for exceptional career achievements. Currently a professor of chemistry at the University of Washington, Dr. McHale has enjoyed a successful career as a faculty member and researcher, with over 80 publications in prominent scientific journals and a textbook titled "Molecular Spectroscopy".
Even as an undergraduate chemistry student back in the early '70s, Dr. McHale's interest and talent in conducting research were recognized by WSU faculty members Dr. Rubin Battino and Dr. Paul Seybold. After earning her Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Wright State in 1975, the young graduate attended the University of Utah where she received her Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1979.
In 1980, Dr. McHale became a chemistry faculty member at the University of Idaho (UI) where she taught chemistry and conducted pioneering research work in resonance Raman spectroscopy. Dr. McHale's tenure at UI was punctuated by many awards: in 1989, she was elected as a Fellow to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and, in 1999, she received the UI Award for Excellence in Research. In 2004, Dr. McHale joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Washington where she currently conducts research in the area of solar energy conversion, using semiconductor nanoparticles sensitized with light-absorbing dyes. Unfortunately, inclement weather prevented her from accepting the award in person. Dr. McHale's achievements were recognized during the University Outstanding Alumni Awards Ceremony held on Saturday, February 9, 2008.
2006
Marc D. Porter, professor of chemistry at Iowa State University and a 1977 and 1980 Wright State University graduate, is the Outstanding Alumni Award 
winner from the College of Science and Mathematics.
One of his Wright State professors considers Porter “one of the most talented, energetic, and stimulating students the Department of Chemistry has ever had.”
While at Wright State, Dr. Porter excelled in research, academics, and sports, earning a tryout with the Montreal Expos major league baseball team in 1979. He received the Margaret Ellen White Graduate Faculty Award from Iowa State in 2004 and the prestigious 2003 R&D 100 Award. Dr. Porter received the R&D award for a new generation immunoassay system, the Ramanprobes™ System, for detecting and labeling antigens, the proteins that serve as the body’s natural defense against infectious agents.
Dr. Porter has directed of the Microanalytical Instrumentation Center and the Institute for Combinatorial Discovery at Iowa State. He has published over 150 papers in these areas, and has been a member of the editorial boards of Analytical Chemistry, Langmuir and Electrochemistry Communications. Dr. Porter earned his Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from The Ohio State University and studied as a post-doctoral fellow at Bell Communications Research.
