Royce W. Murray, Kenan Professor of Chemistry and Applied Materials Science at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, is perhaps the most widely recognized ambassador of Analytical Chemistry in the United States. He is known for research in many areas, including chemically-modified electrodes, electron transfer kinetics and catalysis, solid-state electrochemistry, and nanostructures.
Professor Murray received his undergraduate training at Birmingham Southern College, and his PhD under the direction of R. C. Bowers at Northwestern University. He is editor of the journal Analytical Chemistry and a member and National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences. His many awards include the Carl Wagner Memorial Award and Olin Palladium Medal from the Electrochemical Society, of which he is a fellow, the Charles N. Reilley Award of the Society for Electroanalytical Chemistry, the Electrochemical Group Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Award in Electrochemistry, and the ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry (Fisher Award). He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He serves on numerous national advisory committees. He has mentored at least 69 PhD candidates and 50 post-doctoral fellows, while publishing over 350 peer-reviewed articles and 4 books. He holds three patents related to surface-modified electrodes. One quarter of the post-baccalaureate students from his group have also become faculty, a testimony to his enthusiastic mentoring.