Professor emeritus Dennis E. Tallman is celebrating a 50-year career at NDSU.
Tallman joined the NDSU faculty in the chemistry department in 1970, transitioning to the Department of Coatings and Polymeric Materials as a research professor in 2007. Now retired, he still maintains an office in the department and continues to publish an occasional paper and participate in departmental committees.
“What initially attracted me to NDSU was the opportunity as a young faculty member to help build the chemistry department into a nationally and internationally renowned program,” Tallman said. “What kept me at NDSU for all these years were my collegial colleagues and fantastic collaborators in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, the Department of Coatings and Polymeric Materials, and the Department of Mathematics.”
Over his career, Tallman has published more than 200 peer-reviewed research papers and book chapters and has received more than $9 million in research grants from various funding agencies. His research career is summarized in an invited paper appearing in the Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry, a journal he edited from 1997 to 2007. The paper is titled “Microelectrodes for Voltammetry - A Personal Historical Perspective.”
Tallman served several terms on the University Athletic Committee during the university’s transition to Division I athletics, including the Subcommittee on Compliance. In 1978, at the encouragement of then-Commissioner of Higher Education Kent Alm, Tallman organized a statewide group known as the Council of College Faculties to serve as a channel of communication between North Dakota University System faculty and the State Board of Higher Education. He served as the council’s first president from 1978 to 1980 and was the first faculty member to attend State Board of Higher Education meetings as a non-voting member. The council still functions today.
He earned his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees at The Ohio State University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University.
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