Volunteer Service Award To Cynthia Larive

Cynthia K. (Cindy) Larive, professor of chemistry and divisional dean for chemistry, mathematics, physics, and astronomy at the University of California, Riverside, has been named the recipient of the 2015 Award for Volunteer Service to the American Chemical Society.

Created in 2001, the award recognizes individuals who have contributed significantly to ACS’s goals and objectives.

“I am thrilled and humbled to receive this award,” says Larive. “It is wonderful to be recognized for the impact of my contributions.”

Larive began volunteering with ACS in 1992, serving in roles including secretary and president of the University of Kansas Section (now the Wakarusa Valley Section) while she was an assistant professor at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

On the national level, Larive has been active in the Division of Analytical Chemistry, serving as its chair in 2013 and heading its education committee from 2003 to 2007. She also was a member of its Web Committee from 2007 to 2010, and she served as the division’s program chair in 2012, overseeing programming at both national meetings and at the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry & Applied Spectroscopy that year. Since 2004, she has served as editor-in-chief of the Analytical Sciences Digital Library (ASDL), which collects, catalogs, links, and publishes peer-reviewed Web-based discovery materials pertinent to innovations in curricular development. ASDL is funded by the National Science Foundation’s National Science Digital Library program and is supported in part by the Division of Analytical Chemistry. Larive received the division’s J. Calvin Giddings Award for Excellence in Education in 2007.

A member of the ACS Committee on Professional Training since 2005, Larive served as its chair from 2009 until 2011 and was a member of the ACS Graduate Education Advisory Board from 2004 to 2011.

In addition, Larive has helped to organize numerous ACS symposia, workshops, and regional meetings.

“Cindy has an outstanding record of accomplishments in her service to ACS and to the research and education community in general,” says Francisco Zaera, a distinguished professor of chemistry at UC Riverside, noting that Larive was named an ACS Fellow in 2011. “Throughout her career, Cindy has demonstrated her strong commitment to the improvement of undergraduate and graduate education and to the advancement of women and minorities.”

Larive will be honored at the 2015 spring ACS national meeting in Denver and will present an address at the ChemLuminary Awards at the 2015 fall national meeting in Boston.