Edward O. Stejskal

Edward O. Stejskal, 79, professor of chemistry emeritus at North Carolina State University, in Raleigh, died on Dec. 2, 2011, as a result of an infection following heart surgery.

Born in Chicago, Stejskal attended the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he received a B.S. in chemistry in 1953 and a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1957 under Herbert S. Gutowsky.

Stejskal then served as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University before becoming an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1958. With his first student, John Tanner, he developed the pulsed field gradient spin echo nuclear magnetic resonance method for the study of diffusion and flow.

He joined Monsanto in St. Louis in 1964, working in its corporate research department as a research specialist, senior research specialist, and fellow. At the company, he and Jacob Schaefer conducted research to obtain high-resolution NMR spectra in solids. That research led to solid-state NMR work aimed at characterizing molecular motion and phase separation.

Stejskal returned to academia in 1986, serving as a professor of chemistry at North Carolina State University. He retired in 1997 but continued to mentor new faculty and consult on new uses of NMR.

He was a fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance, a member of the American Physical Society, and an emeritus member of ACS, joining in 1967. He also served on the editorial board of the Journal of Magnetic Resonance and was secretary and chair of the Experimental NMR Conference.

The opening day of the 41st Southeastern Magnetic Resonance Conference, which will be held next month in conjunction with the Southeastern Regional Meeting of ACS, will be dedicated to Stejskal.

He is survived by his wife, Anita; brother, Donald; and sister-in-law, Dorothy.