Leifer named Donovan Award recipient Dr. Leslie Leifer, Michigan Tech professor of chemistry, displays the 2001 Clair M. Donovan Award he received recently. The MTU chapter of Blue Key National Honor Fraternity, represented by Blue Key President Keith Nackers, left, presented the award to Leifer for outstanding service to the University this past year. (Photo courtesy Michigan Technological University) HOUGHTON ’Äì Dr. Leslie Leifer, professor of chemistry at Michigan Tech, has been named the 2001 recipient of the Clair M. Donovan Award. The award, sponsored by the MTU chapter of Blue Key National Honor Fraternity, is presented to a member of the faculty, staff or student body of MTU who has contributed the most outstanding service to the University during the preceding year. The award is made in honor of Clair M. Donovan, who, through his many years of service as president of Blue Key National Honor Fraternity as an alumnus and a civil leader, has made immeasurable contributions to the public image and prosperity of Michigan Tech.   "In addition to his endless devotion to MTU," said Keith Nackers, Blue Key president, "Dr. Leslie Leifer's warm heart and friendly demeanor make him a truly worthy recipient of the prestigious Clair M. Donovan award." Leifer received an undergraduate degree in chemistry from the City College of New York in 1950 and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Kansas. Prior to coming to Michigan Tech in 1966, Leifer was an associate professor at Boston College from 1963 to 1966, a research associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1961 to 1963 and an assistant professor of chemistry at Clark University from 1959 to 1960. Leifer has been active in the Michigan Tech community, serving from 1990 through 1999 on the Michigan Tech University Senate. He chaired the Senate Fringe Benefits Committee and served on the Senate Finance Committee. He also served on the Provost Task Force on Continuation of Pre-funding of Retirement Health Benefits. United States Atomic Energy Commission Travel Grants allowed Leifer to travel to Stockholm, Sweden, in 1962; to Sydney, Australia and Hobart, Tasmania, in 1963; and to Stockholm, Sweden, in 1971. He received the MTU Faculty Research Award in 1970 and was nominated for the Faculty Distinguished Service Award in 2000. Leifer was an Invited Guest Participant at the First Australian Conference on Electrochemistry in Sydney, Australia, in February 1963, as well as Invited Speaker at several International Symposia on various aspects of Chemical Thermodynamics and Solution Chemistry, such as the International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies in 1984 and 1989.