Posted on April 27, 2001 at 10:20 a.m.
BIRMINGHAM, AL — Jimmy Mays, Ph.D., chemistry professor in the UAB School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, has been named recipient of the 2001 Caroline P. and Charles W. Ireland Award for Scholarly Distinction.
UAB presents the award annually to a faculty member in the School of Arts and Humanities, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, or Social and Behavioral Sciences, for professional and academic achievements and contributions made to the university and the local community.
A reception and dinner to honor Mays will be held Tuesday, May 15, at The Club. As part of the award, Mays receives an honorarium of $5,000. The funds for this award are provided by an endowment established at UAB by Caroline Ireland and the late Charles W. Ireland.
Mays is an internationally renowned polymer chemist. His research focuses primarily on the synthesis and characterization of polymers that possess unusual molecular structures and properties. Mays and his research group use the fundamental understanding gained by the study of these materials to design polymeric materials for specific applications, such as new and better elastic materials, bone materials, drug delivery systems and protective military apparel.
“Dr. Mays has distinguished himself not only in his outstanding academic research and teaching, but also through his many collaborative research efforts with industrial colleagues,” said James McClintock, Ph.D., dean of the UAB School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
Mays has published more than 150 technical papers and books and made more than 200 presentations at national and international scientific meetings. He was the lead academic speaker at the U.S. Army-sponsored workshop on flexible barrier materials for the Soldier System at the Natick Research and Engineering Development Center in Natick, Mass., in 1999. He also was the keynote speaker at the NATO/Advanced Study Institute meeting on Ionic Polymerization and Related Processes in London, Ontario, in 1998. His research and development has current or pending support by more than 20 grants from federal and state agencies and private corporations.
Mays is a member of the American Chemical Society — Divisions of Polymer Chemistry and Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering and a member of the Alabama Academy of Science. Mays joined the UAB faculty in 1988 and presently serves on the editorial advisory boards of Macromolecules and the Journal of Applied Polymer Science and holds editorships with European Polymer Journal and the International Journal of Polymer Analysis and Characterization.