BYU to honor professor of chemistry on Tuesday

PROVO — Brigham Young University will honor one of its most prolific professors this week.

The BYU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry will honor Milton L. Lee with the Reed M. Izatt and James J. Christensen Faculty Excellence in Research Award on Tuesday at 4 p.m. in W140 Ezra Taft Benson Building.

Lee is BYU's H. Tracy Hall Professor of Chemistry and has more than 500 scientific publications to his credit.

Izatt and Christensen initiated BYU's internationally recognized joint research program in chemical thermodynamics and chemical separations. During their careers, these scientists authored or co-authored nearly 900 books, book chapters and peer reviewed articles. They also hold many U.S. and foreign patents.

Lee is also successful at creating new technology that BYU has been able to transfer to business uses. He is a founder of Torion Technologies, which has licensed 10 patents from the university that Lee developed there.

The company has contracts to produce the Guardion-7 chemical detector, a 28-pound portable device that can detect, without false positives and with exact specificity, a wide range of chemicals in fewer than five minutes.

The U.S. Department of Defense, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and other Army-related industries have provided $5 million in grants for the development of the Guardion-7, Torion president Douglas Later said.

Following the award presentation, Lee will present a lecture titled "Novel Microseparation Techniques — Nerve Agents to Proteins."

The public is welcome to attend.