Chemistry Dept. nabs top recruit

Virgil Percec, a leading organic chemist at Case Western Reserve University, will begin next year. Ending a long-standing recruitment slump, the Chemistry Department will officially hire a senior faculty member tomorrow, marking its first new hire in nearly three years. Virgil Percec, a full Chemistry professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, will arrive at Penn on June 1 and will serve as a senior faculty member beginning next year, Chemistry Department Chairperson Hai-Lung Dai said yesterday. "We are elated about his coming," Dai said, adding that Percec will be a "terrific addition" to the department. Percec, 52, is considered one of the world's leading polymer scientists. He is currently the editor of the Journal of Polymer Science and is the Case Professor of Chemistry at Case Western. Percec said his expertise was "on the borderline between organic chemistry and polymer chemistry." Though he doesn't yet know which classes he will teach at the University, Percec said he would eventually like to teach a combination of undergraduates and graduates. When the nearly 30-member Chemistry Department first contacted him about the position last summer, Percec said he had not been "looking to move." But the opportunity to influence his field at an Ivy League institution, coupled with the "terrific group of people" that he said comprise Penn's Chemistry Department, sealed Percec's decision to accept the position. But while he said he is certainly excited about his new position, he does sentimentally regard Case Western as his "first home? in this country." "I've dedicated a lot of time, I've dedicated a lot of enthusiasm to this place," he said. The hiring is the first in what the Chemistry faculty members hope will be a series of new appointments to fill the new facility and the beleaguered department. Though it has actively tried to recruit senior faculty from other universities throughout the past two years, this is the first sign of success. And of the four chemistry disciplines -- physical, biological, organic and inorganic -- hiring a professor who specialized in organic chemistry, like Percec, was the top priority. "[Percec] will undoubtedly interact greatly with other research groups in the department and other groups on campus," Chemistry Professor Alan MacDiarmid said. For Dai, the new appointment is particularly important given the department's current lack of professors who deal specifically with organic polymers. Percec's research should complement MacDiarmid's discovery of inorganic "conducting polymers" -- an achievement lauded by Dai as a "landmark kind of contribution." MacDiarmid, who is currently in his 42nd year at Penn, said he expects Percec to "fit in really delightfully." "I personally am absolutely delighted that he'll be joining the faculty, since he has a very broad reputation in his field," he said. Percec will work mainly in the state-of-the-art Roy and Diana Vagelos Laboratories, which opened last November adjacent to the main Chemistry Building. Percec was born in Romania and defected to the United States 20 years ago. After doing his postdoctoral work at the University of Akron in Ohio, he was offered a position at Case Western in 1982. Officials did not say whether any other hirings are imminent.