Alumni
|Biography
|Joseph A. Gardella, Jr.
Joseph A. Gardella, Jr. is Professor of Chemistry and Faculty Fellow in the UB Institute for Local Governance and Regional Growth at SUNY Buffalo (UB), where he has been since 1982. Joe was born and raised in Detroit Michigan, and completed a dual degree program in Chemistry (B.S.) and Philosophy (B.A.) from Oakland University in Rochester Michigan., a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh and postdoctoral research in Physical Chemistry at the University of Utah. He served as a visiting scientist/program officer at the National Science Foundation Chemistry Division in 1989-90. From 1999-2005, he was Associate Dean for External Affairs in the College of Arts and Sciences and he was responsible for coordinating and leading the College's programs in working with industry, community, government and elementary and secondary schools. On campus, he is presently the Director of the UB Materials Research Instrumentation Facility, managing ca. $9M of shared research instrumentation. As a Faculty Fellow in the Institute for Local Governance and Regional Growth, he is pursuing policy studies in regional science and environmental policy and public participation. More info is at: www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~gardella.
Professor Gardella’s research interests are in quantitative analysis and surface chemistry, broadly applied to the study of environmental effects at polymer surfaces and tissue engineering with synthetic biomaterials, and have resulted in some 220 publications and an equal number of invited talks worldwide. His work is funded by the National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, National Institutes of Health and industry. Besides his research interests, he has long standing interests in curriculum development for scientists and non-scientists. As the Chair of the UB Environmental Task Force in the mid 1990's he was involved in a variety of public service and policy projects, including student environmental auditing of Buffalo City Hall, and a funded project in developing field environmental analysis studies for access for community groups and local governments.
Professor Gardella has been active in program development in undergraduate research, interdisciplinary studies, service learning and other academic reform areas. He is the UB representative to the Western New York Service Learning Coalition (WNYSLC, www.wnyslc.org). Gardella is co-PI on the Community Linked Interdisciplinary Research (CLIR) program, funded by the Hewlett Foundation at SUNY Buffalo, to develop and sustain course based public service research as a means to increase the participation of undergraduates in integrative research or scholarly activity. He is also the Co-PI on the Professional Science Masters program in CAS, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, developing innovative masters programs in the sciences. He serves as Program Director and Principal Investigator of the NIH funded Research Institute in Biomedical Materials Science and Engineering (RIBSE) (www.ribse.buffalo.edu), a summer interdisciplinary undergraduate research program
In the community, Joe currently serves as a volunteer or appointed advisor on a variety of community service projects, including the Buffalo Pest Management Board, the City of Buffalo Environmental Management Commission, the Seneca Babcock Good Neighbor Committee and the Solid Waste Advisory Board of the City of Buffalo. He is presently a member of the Executive Committee of the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter Niagara Group, and serves the statewide Atlantic Chapter as Toxics Chair and a member of the Political Committee. He also serves as Co-Chair of the Special Education Parent Advisory Committee for the Buffalo Public Schools, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Parent Network of WNY, an organization founded to support parents of special needs children. He has been a member of the Buffalo Public Schools Superintendent’s Advisory Group, the Parent Forum organizational panel, the Buffalo Public School Board’s Program Committee, and the Ad-Hoc Environmental Advisory Council and is past President of School 84 Parents Teachers and Friends.
He has been awarded a 2005 National Science Foundation Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM), the 72nd Jacob Schoellkopf Medal of the Western New York American Chemical Society (2002), the 2003 Ernest Lynton Award for Faculty Public Service, three SUNY Chancellor's Medals for Excellence in Teaching (1996), Faculty Service (2004) and Scholarly and Creative Work (2005), the National Science Foundation Award for Special Creativity (1991-1993) and has been a fellow of the Exxon Education Foundation (1989-91) and Lawrence M. Gelb Foundation (1986-89). He was the awarded the second Distinguished Chemistry Alumni Award at Oakland University in 1998.
He has a real life besides this stuff, which includes his wife, Carol Kizis, his daughter, Claire Seung Hee, and son, Joseph Jee Yoon. They all enjoy traveling, reading, gardening and other important pursuits which do not involve academic politics. They reside in North Buffalo, where they enjoy the weather.