ARLINGTON, TX (TIP): Professor Purnendu “Sandy” Dasgupta, the Hamish Small Chair of Ion Analysis in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Texas at Arlington, has been named recipient of the 2017 Talanta Medal, an international award that recognizes world leaders in the analytical chemistry field.
The Talanta Medal was initiated in 1961 by Pergamon Press, which was later acquired by multinational publishing group Elsevier, as a prestigious award of a gold medal for outstanding contributions to analytical chemistry. Dasgupta is the fourth American academic to win the award and the first of Indian origin. A special issue of Talanta, an acclaimed international journal devoted to Analytical Chemistry, will be published to coincide with the award ceremony, to commemorate this occasion.
Dasgupta’s high-impact research is improving public health on a global scale, a clear demonstration of advancing the University’s Strategic Plan 2020: Bold Solutions | Global Impact. Dasgupta has won numerous awards over the course of his career. In 2016, he was awarded the Eastern Analytical Symposium’s highest award, the Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Fields of Analytical Chemistry, and the Tech Titans Technology Inventors Award for his many innovations in chemical and environmental analysis.
Other honors include the 2015 American Chemical Society Division of Analytical Chemistry J. Calvin Giddings Award for Excellence in Education; the 2012 Stephen Dal Nogare Award in Chromatography; the 2012 Wilfred T. Doherty Award, DFW Section of the ACS; and the 2011 ACS Award in Chromatography. He also was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and an honorary member of the Japan Society of Analytical Chemistry, both in 2015.
Dasgupta received a bachelor’s degree with honors in Chemistry from Bankura Christian College in 1968 and a master’s degree in inorganic chemistry from the University of Burdwan in 1970, both located in West Bengal, India. He came to the United States in 1973 and earned his doctorate in analytical chemistry under Philip W. West, with a minor in electrical engineering, from Louisiana State University in 1977. He has published more than 400 papers and holds 29 patents.