CU professor selected to receive Hazel Barnes Prize
CU researcher and Professor John Falconer has been selected to receive the Hazel Barnes Prize and a $20,000 cash award for his groundbreaking research in heterogeneous catalysis and zeolite membranes for gas phase separations and his continued work with CU.
Falconer will be honored at spring commencement on May 9 and again at the beginning of the fall semester.
Falconer said by using zeolite membranes, it would be possible for energy companies to better extract natural gas reserves without emitting the carbon dioxide that is often stored with the methane.
The Hazel Barnes Prize was established in 1991 to recognize teachers with exceptional careers and contributions, according to the CU Web site. The award is the largest and most prestigious award funded by the university.
Falconer has been teaching with CU for 33 years and has been conducting groundbreaking research, but said receiving the award took him by surprise as he was never informed that he had been nominated.
“It’s amazing,” Falconer said. “It’s kind of a surprise.”
Graduate student Bruce Lam, who works with Falconer in his research, said Falconer was the ideal recipient for the Hazel Barnes Prize.
“As a teacher, he is revolutionary,” Lam wrote in an e-mail to the Campus Press. “He is ready to instantly adapt his methodologies to improve teaching and understanding. His classes are some of the most difficult but are also the most rewarding.”
Falconer’s recent research has included working with CU Professor Richard Noble. Their work with zeolite membranes has produced the first new membrane for gas separations in over 30 years, Noble said.
Noble said he could not have a better partner in research.
“John and I are really good friends,” Noble said. “He’s an excellent collaborator. Both he and I are really committed to working together and making sure it’s done right at the end of the day.”
Noble said Falconer is the epitome of a role model for students and the CU community in general.
Falconer explained that as energy companies drill for methane, they receive carbon dioxide as well. With zeolite membranes, a high pressure mixture of carbon dioxide and methane would be placed on one side of the membrane. Due to the composition of the membrane, carbon dioxide is separated from the methane and passes through the membrane to the other side, at which point energy companies could dispose of or sequester the gas without sending it into the atmosphere.
Even though the material is still in its research phase, Falconer said commercial companies are taking interest in the groundbreaking research.
“It’s not being applied yet but it’s looking very promising,” Falconer said.
Lam said that he was surprised that Falconer could manage to conduct excellent research while providing an example for teachers throughout the campus.
“How does he find the time to be both a great teacher and great principal investigator?” Lam said. “Well, I guess that is why he is receiving the Hazel Barnes Prize, and in my mind, there is no one more deserving.”
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Stephen Oskay at Stephen.Oskay@colorado.edu.
