Gifts in Action - Professor Benjamin McCall

MEET PROFESSOR BENJAMIN MCCALL

Professor Benjamin McCall, a highly respected professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been awarded a Packard Fellowship for science and engineering from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Over a five-year period, he will receive $625,000 to enhance his research efforts.

McCall is a tremendous asset to UIUC. He has built a research program in astrochemistry using the tools of gas phase molecular spectroscopy to address both fundamental chemical problems and longstanding problems in molecular astrophysics.

McCall earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1995 and a joint doctorate in chemistry and astronomy and astrophysics from the University of Chicago in 2001. He then held a prestigious Miller Fellowship at the University of California at Berkeley.

Recently recognized with a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, McCall’s other honors include a National Science Foundation Career Award and a Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award.

THE PACKARD FELLOWSHIP

Established in 1988, the fellowship arose from David Packard’s sincere commitment to strengthening university-based science and engineering programs.

By supporting unusually creative researchers early in their careers, the Foundation hopes to develop scientific leaders, further the work of promising young scientists and engineers, and support efforts to attract talented graduate students into university research in the United States.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

“McCall is one of the most spectacular young physical chemists in the United States,” said Steve Zimmerman, the head of U of I’s chemistry department. “His research has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the spectra of ions in the gas phase and of the chemistry of interstellar clouds.”