Honoring Bojan Jennings

The tenure of Professor of Chemistry Emerita Bojan Hamlin Jennings is legendary at Wheaton. She was instrumental in establishing a rigorous chemistry major here, and in the 1980s, she designed the major in biochemistry. On Thursday, Oct. 30, Wheaton will recognize her lifetime of achievements by presenting her with an honorary doctor of science at noon in Cole Memorial Chapel.

It is estimated that in her four decades at Wheaton Jennings encouraged more than 150 chemistry majors at the college, many of whom went on to doctoral work in the sciences, including Professors Suzanne Purrington '60, Donna S. Amenta '65 and Interim Provost Elita Pastra-Landis '69. In 2006, Jennings was honored with the distinguished American Chemical Society Award for Encouraging Women into Careers in the Chemical Sciences.

The ACS award is a testament to the years of innovation and opportunity in research she brought to Wheaton and to the world of chemistry. In 1959, Jennings won Wheaton's first summer research grants, $2,190 to study the effects of ultrasound on carbon tetrachloride and chloroform. In addition to studying chemical reactions induced by ultrasound, Jennings has researched photochemical reactions of bases found in DNA and RNA and the synthesis of steroids related to estrogens. All of her research was done with students and supported by grants from the Research Corporation, the Petroleum Research Fund, The National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Throughout her career, Jennings published 10 professional articles in scientific journals. All were co-authored with her students.

Jennings, who holds degrees from Bryn Mawr, Radcliffe and Harvard, where she earned her Ph.D., was chair of Wheaton's Department of Chemistry from 1978 until her retirement in 1985. From 1975 to 1978, she held the A. Howard Meneely Professorship for Excellence in Teaching.

She is now retired, but has not slowed down. A trustee of the Pilgrim Society in Plymouth, she has served on a variety of its committees. She is the author of four books, including Chemistry at Wheaton and Bathshua: The Most Extraordinary Crime Ever Perpetrated in New England. The latter is a fictionalized account of a very real murder that took place in Massachusetts during the American Revolution.

On Thursday, President Ronald A. Crutcher will lead the ceremony. Interim Provost Elita Pastra-Landis '69, chemistry professor and a former student of Jennings, will present the honorary degree. And the hooding will be done by Purrington '60.