Louis T. Benezet Award-2002 - Colorado College

Paul M. Holland '69

Paul M. Holland is a physical chemist and oceanographer who serves as president of Thorleaf Research, Inc., a firm he founded to develop miniaturized instrumentation for space flight and oceanographic measurements. This includes NASA-funded work to develop miniature GC/MS systems (in collaboration with JPL) for planetary atmosphere measurements and environmental monitoring during long duration human space flight, underwater sampling systems (funded by both the Navy and NASA), and a micro-sampling probe and programmable thermal desorption/pyrolysis inlet system for in situ astrobiology-related measurements in soils and ice. Astrobiology is the search for evidence of life beyond the planet Earth, with two of the more promising places being Mars and Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter believed to have an ice-covered ocean 100 km deep.


After his B.A. in chemistry at CC, Paul received an M.S. in oceanography from the Institute of Oceanography at Old Dominion University in 1974, and Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Colorado in 1980. He has co-edited two books, and is the author or co-author of more than 10 book chapters and more than 100 articles and presented papers. These span a wide range of scientific topics including miniaturized instrumentation, mixed surfactant systems, thermophysical properties, and gas phase clustering reactions. He has also published outside of science, with an article on J.M.W. Turner (the English landscape painter), and a number of articles on die varieties of British and Australian pennies and halfpennies. In July 2000 he was presented with The Ray Jewell Award (top award of the Numismatic Association of Australia) at a special dinner in Melbourne, Australia.


At CC, his favorite chemistry professor was Dick Taber, favorite activities included writing (unpublished novel), painting, film making (“Mondo C.C.,” which won the Helen Twelvetrees Film Festival), as well as the usual parties and pranks.