OAK Award Presented to Union College Alumna
by Haley Bowling

Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson presented Union College alumna Marcetta York Darensbourg with the prestigious OAK award during the Governor’s Conference on Postsecondary Education Trusteeship on Sept. 17.

A Union College graduate is the 2006 recipient of the OAK award for outstanding alumni at Kentucky’s colleges and universities.

Kentucky’s Council on Postsecondary Education chose 1963 graduate Dr. Marcetta York Darensbourg as a recipient this year based on her nationally recognized career, as well as her exhibition of lifelong affection for her alma mater and Kentucky.

Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson presented the award at a ceremony on Sept. 17 at the Governor’s Conference on Postsecondary Education Trusteeship in Hebron, Ky.

Darensbourg, who is currently a professor of chemistry at Texas A&M University, directs the Marcetta Y. Darensbourg Research Laboratories. Her scientific research has gained her national, as well as international, acclaim. She is one of Union’s Distinguished Alumni Scholars and was inducted into the Union College Educator’s Hall of Fame in 1994.

Darensbourg will be returning to Union College next fall as a visiting lecturer.

A native of Artemis who earned her Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Union College, Darensbourg earned her Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1967.

Darensbourg is also the recipient of the American Chemical Society Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Inorganic Chemistry and has served as a National Student Affiliates “Eminent Scientist” lecturer for that society as well.

October 4th, 2006

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