Santa Clara University

Jack Gilbert

Jack Gilbert

Director: Biotechnology and Society

Jack Gilbert was a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) prior to joining Santa Clara University (SCU).  Jack will be responsible for the Center's new biotechnology initiative. After consulting with local experts regarding the major societal issues associated with this emerging area of science, he will begin to develop seminars, symposia, and other activities to help examine the impacts of biotech on society. Long term, the goal is to engage a broad set of participants in biotech programming, ranging from industry and academy experts to laypersons with relatively little understanding of this field of science.Educated at the University of Wyoming (B.S.) and Yale University (M.S., Ph.D.), he joined the faculty of UT in 1965.  His research interests are in organic chemistry, with special emphasis on synthetic methodology and reactive intermediates.  He is extremely proud of the postdoctoral, graduate, and undergraduate students he has mentored during his career and is pleased that their discoveries in research have resulted in a useful chemical reagent being named after him.  He received the Advisory Council Teaching Excellence Award for the 2002–2003 academic year.

During his tenure at UT Austin, he held several administrative positions and has served on a number of committees at all levels of the university.  He was chairperson of the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry and then of Human Ecology, where he learned the ins and outs of fashion design, among other things.  Interestingly, for the final two years of his term in the latter department he also held the position of associate dean and frequently found himself, as chairperson, writing himself, as associate dean, seeking financial resources, which were invariably granted!  He chaired the Faculty Council of the university, and the Faculty Building Advisory Committee, one of the most important and active standing committees of the General Faculty.