May 14, 2001

Contact: Todd Cohen, University Relations, (785) 864-8858.

KU names 2 Self faculty scholars for 2001-04

LAWRENCE -- A molecular biologist and a pharmaceutical chemist at the University of Kansas have been named Self Faculty Scholars for 2001-04. Each will receive $50,000 annually for three years to finance their research. Teruna J. Siahaan, associate professor of pharmaceutical chemistry on the Lawrence campus, and Kenneth R. Peterson, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the KU Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., may use the funds in any way to support their research and careers, including paying for personnel, equipment, supplies or travel directly related to research.

This is the second year the scholarships, created by Madison "Al" and Lila Self of Hinsdale, Ill., have been awarded. The Self Faculty Scholar Award recognizes and helps support KU faculty members in engineering, business and the sciences who are early in their careers and have demonstrated the potential to establish renowned and peer-acclaimed scholarship within their research fields. Each year, the Self Faculty Scholars program selects two faculty members.

The award also acknowledges professors who are prepared to mentor pre-doctoral students in the Self Graduate Fellowship program. In addition to conducting research, the faculty scholars will serve as mentors to students in the Madison and Lila Self Graduate Fellowship program. The fellowships are awarded annually to incoming doctoral students who have outstanding records in scholarship and who are judged to possess unusual leadership potential.

The Selfs established the fellowships in 1989 and have made several additional contributions to the endowed fund for this program, which currently supports 35 students.

At the KU Medical Center, Kenneth Peterson's research focuses on developmental regulation of human beta-globin gene expression. The long-term goal is to use this knowledge to treat sickle-cell anemia and beta-thalassemias.

Peterson received a bachelor's degree in microbiology and chemistry in 1979 from Northern Arizona University, a master's degree in microbiology and biochemistry in 1981 from Idaho State University, and a doctorate in molecular biology and biochemistry in 1987 from the University of Arizona. Teruna Siahaan focuses his research on drug delivery regarding the regulation of tight intercellular junctions to improve the delivery of poorly absorbed drugs.

He received a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1979 and a master's degree in organic chemistry in 1982, both from the University of Indonesia in Jakarta. He received his doctorate in organic chemistry in 1986 from the University of Arizona.

An external review committee, chaired by Del Shankel, KU chancellor emeritus, evaluated the candidates' applications. The review committee included scholars from Washington University in St. Louis, University of Virginia, Iowa State University, University of Washington, and University of California, Santa Barbara.

Al Self, who has been a leader in the business world, met his wife, Lila, when both were students at KU. They married in 1943, the same year he graduated with a degree in chemical engineering. In 1947, he acquired Bee Chemical Co. in Lansing, Ill. When he sold the company 37 years later, it had grown from a staff of three to a sizable corporation with five U.S. manufacturing sites and operations in Japan and England.

Lila Reetz Self, a native of Eudora, attended KU with the class of 1943. Over the years she has maintained a special interest in art and architecture and has been active in the community, including serving on the Student Life Committee at Chicago's Illinois Institute of Technology. The couple has one son.