Retired YSU professor stays focused on research

The retired professor was honored for writing 200
scientific papers.

YOUNGSTOWN — Dr. Janet E.
Del Bene may have retired from Youngstown State University eight years ago, but she hasn’t retired from her scientific research. Del Bene, professor emeritus of chemistry at YSU, has been golfing, playing piano and organ, taking travel photos — and accelerating the rate at which she publishes her research work in quantum theoretical chemistry.

This year she reached a significant milestone, the publication of her 200th scientific paper, believed to be the most ever by a YSU faculty member.

“Dr. Del Bene is a tremendous asset to both YSU and the world of science,” said Ikram Khawaja, YSU interim provost. “Her research productivity sets a benchmark which is not easy to replicate.”

Del Bene’s 200th publication was celebrated at a recent reception in the DeBartolo Stadium Club.

She retired from teaching in 1999 to have what she calls a “continuous sabbatical.” Since retiring, the Howland resident has dramatically increased her research, writing and work-related travel.

No matter where she is, she accesses the Ohio Supercomputer Center in Columbus to do her calculations.

Although her work touches on a variety of areas, she focuses on characterizing and understanding hydrogen bonds, what she calls “the most important way in which two molecules can interact.” Such bonds are important in many disciplines, with applications including drug interactions in the body and DNA replication.

“I fell in love with chemistry in high school,” said Del Bene, a 1957 graduate of Ursuline High School. “I wanted to answer the question ‘why?’ Computational chemistry enables me to do this.”

Del Bene earned a bachelor’s degree in education in 1963 and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1965, both summa cum laude, from YSU. She earned a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1968 from the University of Cincinnati.

Her first published paper appeared in The Journal of Chemical Physics in 1968. It presented a new method to compute energies of molecules in excited states.

Her 200th paper, published this year in Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry, explains how experiments can be used to characterize hydrogen bonds and suggests some new experiments which could provide new and important insights.

Del Bene often works and publishes with colleagues around the world and worked on two occasions with Nobel Prize laureate John A. Pople at Carnegie Mellon University.

Since retiring, she has been a visiting professor at the University of Sydney, Australia, held an adjunct professorship at the University of Florida and was a BBVA Foundation Fellow at the University of Madrid, Spain.

Del Bene received YSU’s Heritage Award in 2003 and the Dean’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Externally Supported Research in 2003. She was given the National Honorary Member Award for an Outstanding Woman Chemist from Iota Sigma Pi in 2002, and she received a Director’s Award for her 2002 National Science Foundation grant.

She is a 22-year member of the Clinical Research Committee of St. Elizabeth Health Center and has been a consultant to Goodyear and the National Institutes of Health and an external examiner for the Department of Energy.