DANVILLE, KY - Joe Workman, associate professor of chemistry at Centre College, has received a Green Chemistry Award for his work on chemical processes that are benign to the environment. He was part of a research team that developed a particular kind of catalyst for bleaching wood pulp without the use of chlorine-based oxidants. The team was based at Carnegie Mellon University, where Workman did his doctoral studies.

Four research teams were chosen from across the United States for this year's awards.

The awards are given under the auspices of the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge, which aims to reduce harmful impacts on the environment by minimizing hazardous substances in industrial processes. The Challenge honors chemical technologies that incorporate green chemistry principles into chemical design, manufacture and use.

Workman joined the Centre faculty in 1993. He is committed to involving students in research and has collaborated with students in research teams each summer since coming to Centre. Two of those students, Mike Scott '97 and Jennifer Scheler '95, have received Fulbright Scholarships.

Workman also serves as academic advisor to students interested in pre-medical studies, and he has assisted students with study sessions and field trips to major medical schools.

A Santa Clara University graduate (bachelor of science), Workman earned a doctorate from Carnegie Mellon.

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