Congratulations to Prof. Rigoberto Hernandez on receiving the 2011 fellowship. The College of Sciences awards one Vasser Woolley Faculty Fellowship each year, and each award will last for two years at approximately $40,000 per year. The initial award began February 2008. The awards are intended for tenured Associate Professors, although faculty just before promotion to this rank or just after promotion from this rank may also be considered. The major criteria for success will be proven accomplishments and maximum impact on the career of the awardee.

Vasser Woolley Foundation

The beginnings of the Vasser Woolley Foundation where set in motion in 1917 through a family business, the Seydel-Woolley Company, which processed chemicals, particularly sizing, for the textile industry. Two generations of Seydels and Woolleys, some of whom are prominent Georgia Tech alumni, managed the company and guided it through several successful iterations. As the company grew into the late 60’s and 70’s, the major users of their products were in the coatings, textile, construction, mining, and adhesives industries. The Seydel Companies, as they are known today, develop, manufacture and market textile process chemicals in the United States and around the world.

The Vasser Woolley Foundation was incorporated in 1961 in Georgia. The Foundation was eventually named in memory of Vasser Woolley Jr. who was born in 1896 and killed in a Paris air crash in 1962 which took the lives of 122 Atlantans. At that time, Vasser Woolley, Jr. was an active Georgia business person who had distinguished himself in the fields of textiles and real estate.

The Foundation’s giving is primarily in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. Their fields of interest include the arts, elementary and secondary education, higher education, the performing arts, recreation, parks and playgrounds. They also have provided support for both the homeless and youth related programs.

Currently, the Vasser Woolley Foundation supports faculty chairs, faculty, graduate students and seminars within the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Tech.