Texas Hall of Fame for Science, Mathematics, and Technology
Induction of Dr. Norman Hackerman
Adam's Mark Hotel, San Antonio, Texas
January 20, 2003
Good evening. My name is Larry Faulkner. I am a chemist -- and the president of The University of Texas at Austin. It is an honor for me to participate in this year's Induction Ceremonies for the Texas Hall of Fame for Science, Mathematics, and Technology. There have been quite a few chemists-turned-university-presidents in the academic world, but it's my pleasure tonight to salute one of the best, Dr. Norman Hackerman, who made it respectable for chemists to move from science to university administration without turning in their lab coats. I congratulate him on his many achievements during a long and distinguished career.
Norman Hackerman was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1912. I know this group can do the math. In 2002 he celebrated his 90th birthday. That alone is a magnificent achievement in genetics and biochemistry.
In fact, Norm was born on March 2, Texas Independence Day, so he was destined to find his future in Texas.
His parents were immigrants and encouraged him to seek the formal education they never had. Norm attended The Johns Hopkins University and progressed through undergraduate and doctoral degrees in seven years, most of them during the Great Depression. He received his Ph.D. in 1935.
Upon graduation, he worked part-time in the chemistry faculty at Loyola College and at Johns Hopkins, and he did chemical research for the Colloid Corporation. After serving as a chemist for the U.S. Coast Guard facility on Staten Island, New York, he joined Virginia Tech as an assistant professor of chemistry. At the outbreak of World War II, he enlisted in the Navy. He was assigned to the Manhattan Project, where he oversaw materials research at various project sites. In 1945, after a year and a half on the project, he joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin as an assistant professor of chemistry.
Dr. Hackerman spent the next 25 years on the UT campus. In 1952 he became chairman of the Department of Chemistry and served for 10 years. He was able to secure funding from the Office of Research and Inventions -- now the Office of Naval Research -- to support his famed work on metal corrosion.
At UT Austin in the mid-1950s, Dr. Hackerman also became dean of the new office that handled government research on campus -- soon to be called the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. And in 1961 he was appointed vice president and provost. Norm agreed to all these administrative appointments on three conditions:
- He would not have to diminish his research;
- He could teach freshman chemistry every M-W-F at 8 a.m.; and
- He could play squash every day at 5 p.m.
An easy chemist to please!
I was a graduate student in chemistry at UT Austin in the mid-'60s, when Norman Hackerman became Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Texas System, then president of UT Austin. To quote him from an interview in the Chemical and Engineering News, "The guy who does the budget, runs the place. And I didn't mind doing budgets." Take heed, mathematicians in the audience! His example is what inspired in me the notion that someday I, too, could do budgets.
True to his three requests -- throughout his career as an administrator and university leader, Dr. Hackerman always maintained his teaching and research. Not many people in Texas are qualified to evaluate Norm Hackerman's talent at squash, but many of his colleagues can testify to his distinguished career as a chemist and his enduring qualities as a university administrator.
He left UT Austin in 1970 to become president of Rice University and served in that role for 15 years -- a stunning achievement in higher education. During his tenure at Rice he strengthened the faculty, guided the growth and restructuring of their academic programs and physical facilities, erased the university's deficit, and nearly quadrupled Rice's endowment during those 15 years. Norman Hackerman could do budgets. And much, much more.
In the field of chemistry, his research has contributed to the understanding of corrosion inhibition, metals oxidation, and to electrochemistry in general. He served as a member and chairman of the National Science Board for a dozen years, and in 1993 he received the National Medal of Science. He has also won the Philip Hauge Abelson Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute of Chemists' Gold Medal, and the National Science Board's Vannevar Bush Award, which acknowledges outstanding achievements in science and technology. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Since his retirement from Rice University in 1985, he has chaired the Scientific Advisory Board of the Welch Foundation and he spends a good deal of time in Austin, where he is Professor Emeritus in Chemistry.
A great chemist, a great leader in higher education. This is a formula that has worked for Norm Hackerman for more than 50 years. I could cite his 200 publications and his numerous board memberships. But I will end by saying that he has become a household word among scientists in Texas. I doubt that anyone has done more to build technical strength and higher education in this great state. Norman Hackerman has been one of those rare and valued great citizens who helps a large and complex society move from past to future.
Congratulations, Norm, on receiving this formal induction into the Texas Hall of Fame for Science, Mathematics, and Technology. We admire you. We salute you. We wish you many more years of research and squash.
Click Here for a printer friendly PDF version. PDF format requires Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing.
