EAST LANSING – Richard Lunt has been appointed to the Johansen Crosby Professorship of Chemical Engineering at Michigan State University. Lunt, who joined MSU in 2011, is an award-winning chemical engineer and materials scientist.
Donald Morelli, interim chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, called the position one of the most prestigious honors the department can bestow on a colleague.
“It is an indication of the high regard of Richard’s peers for his work on behalf of the department and its students,” Morelli explained. “The intent of this endowment is to enhance a faculty member’s ability to provide high-quality instruction and public service, and to carry out trend setting scholarship,” Morelli added.
“Receiving the Johansen Crosby endowed chair in Chemical Engineering is an incredible honor that will help advance our research on energy-related materials, technologies, and education,” Lunt said. “I am excited to carry on the legacy of academic excellence exemplified in Professor Edwin Johansen Crosby’s career.”
Lunt is a pioneer in renewable energy and energy efficient technologies. He has developed excitonic materials for applications in enhancing solar harvesting and building efficiencies. His research focuses on expanding energy harvesting systems, efficient light emitting systems, and the potential of excitonic electronic device functionality.
The Johansen Crosby Professorship is part of the educational initiatives of the Johansen Crosby Endowment at MSU and honors the parents of Edwin Johansen Crosby. His father, Edwin Rallard Crosby, owned an electric supply company in Flint, and his mother, Thora Anne Johansen Crosby, was an ardent horticulturist and volunteer for the MSU Cooperative Extension Service in Flint.
Johansen Crosby received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from MSU in 1950 and continued his studies in Wisconsin. He spent his career as an inspiring educator and researcher in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, until his untimely death in 1991.
To read more on the Johansen Crosby Endowment, visit: http://www.chems.msu.edu/alumni/jcendowment
