Adon A. Gordus, Ph.D., professor of chemistry in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, will retire from active faculty status on May 31, 2001, following a distinguished career as a teacher and a scholar.

Professor Gordus received his B.S. degree in chemistry from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1952 and his Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin in 1956. Following a postdoctoral fellowship, he joined the University of Michigan faculty as an instructor in 1957. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1960, associate professor in 1964, and professor in 1970.

Professor Gordus was noted both for his research in neutron activation analysis, especially of minerals, art objects, and artifacts of archeological interest, and for his outstanding teaching and mentoring of undergraduate students. He served as assistant director of the Honors Program for many years and regularly taught undergraduate analytical chemistry. He was among the first to introduce the use of personal computers to students and
developed a set of applications for the exploration of statistical treatment of analytical data in ordinary spreadsheets. He also authored a popular textbook on quantitative analysis for the Schaum's Outline series.

For his contributions to the undergraduate curriculum and his devotion to undergraduate teaching and mentoring, Professor Gordus received the Amoco Good Teaching Award.