Royce W. Murray

Royce W. Murray (January 9, 1937 – July 6, 2022) was an American chemist and chemistry professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests were focused on electrochemistry, molecular designs, and sensors. He published over 440 peer-reviewed articles in analytical, physical, inorganic, and materials chemistry, and trained 72 Ph.D. students, 16 master's students, and 58 postdoctoral fellows, 45 of whom have gone on to university faculty positions.

Biography Royce W. Murray was born to Royce Leroy Murray and Louisa Justina Herd Murray in Birmingham, Alabama, on January 9, 1937. He worked at the electrical shop run by his father, who was an electrician for the Alabama Power Company. Here he became familiar with electrical meters, generators, lathes, wiring diagrams, and insulating materials, as well as scrap metal from the War, 50-call ammo, and gunpowder, foreshadowing his career in electrochemistry. Murray was promoted from Instructor to assistant professor in 1961, and associate professor in 1966. At roughly the same time as his promotion to full professor (1969), he was made an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow. In 1980, he was named a Kenan Professor of Chemistry and, in 1996, a Kenan Professor of Applied and Materials Sciences. He died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on July 6, 2022, aged 85.

Murray's service positions have included roles as the National Science Foundation’s first “rotator” in the Chemistry Division in the early 1970s and a key participant in subsequent NSF activities, and with the American Chemical Society in roles relating to the Subcommittee on Graduate Level Analytical Chemistry Examination, Division of Chemical Education (1964–74, chair, 1970–74); Division of Analytical Chemistry, alternate councilor (1978–79), councilor (1980–82); Canvassing Committee, ACS National Awards (1984–86); advisory board, Analytical Chemistry (1979–1981); Division of Analytical Chemistry (1985–1989); Committee on Publications (1985–90); and executive committee, Division of Analytical Chemistry (1991–2022). He was also the editor-in-chief of Analytical Chemistry from 1991 to 2011. Charles N. Reilley Award of the Society for Electroanalytical Chemistry, (1988) Electrochemical Group Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, London, (1989) Eleventh North Carolina ACS Section Distinguished Speaker Award, (1989) ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Award in Electrochemistry, (1990) ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry, (Fisher Award) (1991) Member, National Academy of Sciences, elected (1991) Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, elected (1992) Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, elected (1992) Eastern Analytical Symposium Award in the Fields of Analytical Chemistry, (1995) Breyer Medal, Electrochemistry Division, Royal Australian Chemical Institute, (1997) Olin Palladium Medal, The Electrochemical Society, (1997) Thomas Jefferson Award, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (2001) North Carolina Award for Science, (2001) Oesper Award, (2002) Luigi Galvani Medal of the Italian Chemical Society, 2004 Southern Chemist Award, Memphis Section of ACS, (2008) ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Analytical Chemistry, (2010)