Nancy Ryan Gray
(Director from 2003-Present)
Nancy Ryan Gray is the Director of the Gordon Research Conferences.
Nancy received her B.S. degree in chemistry from the University of Notre Dame in 1981 and her Ph.D. in Fuel Chemistry from
The Pennsylvania State University in 1985. She was a Scientific Fellow at the Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in Amsterdam,
The Netherlands, during 1984. Nancy has participated in and been an invited speaker at the Analytical Pyrolysis Gordon Conference.
Prior to joining GRC, Nancy served as the Director of Membership at the American Chemical Society (ACS). The Membership Division
includes the Departments of Career Services, Membership Activities, Meetings and Expositions, Awards and Divisional Activities, Local
Section and Community Activities, and Industry Member Programs. In addition to serving as Membership Director, Nancy was the liaison
to the Board Committee on Grants and Awards and the Council Committee on Nominations and Elections and was responsible for
stewarding the ACS national election process.
Prior to joining the ACS, Nancy spent nine years working as an industrial research chemist at Exxon Production Research Company
in Houston, Texas. Nancy served as Research Specialist in Organic Chemistry working in the Environmental Conservation Section where
she was responsible for communicating chemical data and technical results to operations and field management personnel at Exxon as
well as to environmental compliance regulators and government representatives. Nancy developed, organized, and presented technical
training courses in oil and gas exploration and production, petroleum geochemistry, and environmental site assessment and
remediation.
Nancy is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and
the American Chemical Society.
Carlyle B. Storm
(Director from 1993-2003)
Carlyle B. Storm is Director Emeritus of the
Gordon Research Conferences.
Carl was the Director of the Gordon Research Conferences from 1993 until September of 2003.
He received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry from the Johns Hopkins University.
After post doctoral work at Stanford University (coordination chemistry) and the NIH (metalloproteins)
he joined the faculty at Howard University in 1968. His research at Howard was in the areas of
inorganic biochemistry, porphyrin chemistry, geochemistry, and magnetic resonance. In 1985 he
moved to the Los Alamos National Laboratory as a staff member in the energetic materials program.
When he retired from Los Alamos in 1993 he was Chief Scientist for the Energetic Materials and
Testing Division. He was the founding Chair of the Energetic Materials GRC and over the years has
participated in the Metals in Biology, Tetrapyrroles, Isotopes in Biological and Chemical Sciences,
and Organic Geochemistry meetings.
Alexander M. Cruickshank
(Director from 1968-1993)
Alexander M. Cruickshank is Director Emeritus of the Gordon Research Conferences.
Alex was born in Marlboro, New Hampshire December 13, 1919. He moved to Westerly, Rhode Island
at age 10. He took his B.S. in chemistry at Rhode Island State College in 1943. While working at
Rhode Island State College as an instructor he took his M.S. in chemistry in 1945. He earned his
Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Massachusetts in 1954. Alex served on the chemistry faculty
at the University of Rhode Island from 1953 to 1982 and was Chair of the Chemistry Department from
1976 to 1982.
The Gordon Research Conferences moved from Gibson Island in Maryland to Colby Junior College,
New London, New Hampshire in 1947. In that summer of 1947, Alex Cruickshank spent 10 weeks as
the site manager for the Gordon Research Conferences and his wife, Irene, served as Conference
secretary. Alex continued as the New Hampshire operations manager and Assistant Director for
GRC until 1968. When George Parks retired as Director, Alex assumed that position. He served as
Director until his retirement in 1993 (a total of 47 years of service with GRC).
W. George Parks
(Director from 1947-1968)
W. George Parks was the second Director of the Gordon Research Conferences.
Parks was born in Rockwood, Pennsylvania on December 20, 1904. After attending the
University of Pennsylvania for his undergraduate degree, Parks went to Columbia University in New
York, where he earned both Master's and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry. His 1931 doctoral thesis was
titled "The Activity Coefficients and Heats of Transfer of Cadmium-Sulfate from Electromotive Force
Measurements at 25 And 0 Degrees". Upon graduation, Parks accepted a position on the faculty at
Rhode Island State College, later renamed the University of Rhode Island, where he taught for
thirty-seven years as a chemistry professor.
In 1947, Parks was appointed director of what would soon become the Gordon Research
Conferences. Among his first acts was to select a new venue for the conferences: Colby Junior
College in New London, New Hampshire, where Parks was a trustee. He also hired Alexander and
Irene Cruickshank to assist in the administrative operations and running of the conferences. After
running ten conferences in the summer of 1947, the GRC headquarters were moved to the University
of Rhode Island. During the next two decades, Parks presided over steady growth in the number of
conferences and attendees.
In 1950, Parks became chairman of the chemistry department at the University of Rhode Island.
In 1968, after twenty-one years as director of GRC, Parks resigned and Alexander Cruickshank
assumed directorship of the conferences. Parks also resigned his post as professor at the University
of Rhode Island, but continued on as professor emeritus until his death in October 1975.
Neil E. Gordon
(Director from 1931-1947)
Neil E. Gordon was the founder of the Gordon Research Conferences.
Born on October 7, 1886, Neil Elbridge Gordon grew up in a central New York farmhouse, the third
of four children. From a young age, Gordon enjoyed his studies, math in particular, and was often
seen doing household chores with a book in hand. A studious young man, Gordon quickly set his sights
on a career in academia. After graduating from high school in just two years, he attended Syracuse
Business School, then Syracuse University, where he received his Ph.B. (Bachelor of Philosophy) in
1911, majoring in mathematics and minoring in chemistry. In 1912, he received a Master's Degree
from Syracuse before attending Johns Hopkins University for his Ph.D., which he earned in 1917, this
time with a major in chemistry and a minor in mathematics.
After several relatively short teaching stints, Gordon settled in at Maryland State Agricultural
College, soon to be named the University of Maryland, as Assistant Professor of Physical and Organic
Chemistry. After two years, Gordon was promoted to professor and also asked to chair the chemistry
department, where he served for eight years. In the interim, Gordon helped found the ACS Section
(later Division) of Chemical Education and launched the Journal of Chemical Education in January
1924.
In 1928, Gordon resigned from the University of Maryland to accept the newly established Francis
P. Garvan Chair of Chemical Education at Johns Hopkins University. Building on experiences with
organizing scientific discussions as an undergraduate, Gordon took over an intermittent set of meetings
that had been held in the chemistry department since the mid-1920s. In 1931, Gordon organized the
first formal conference; its success in stimulating discussion on various cutting-edge scientific topics
led to additional week-long conferences in subsequent years. Starting in 1934, the conferences were
held on nearby Gibson Island.
To the surprise of colleagues and family, Gordon resigned from his position at Johns Hopkins
University and accepted a post as Chairman of the Chemistry Department at Central College in
Missouri in 1936. At Central College, Gordon established the Hooker Scientific Library, later renamed
the Kresge-Hooker Scientific Library, and became Secretary of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science [AAAS]. He also renewed his involvement in the "AAAS-Gibson Island
Conferences", as they were then called, and was named their first director. In the spring of 1942,
Gordon left Central College for a post as Chairman of the Chemistry Department at Wayne University
in Detroit, taking with him the Hooker Scientific Library and continuing his participation in the research
conferences. In 1946, Gordon resigned as director of the Conferences. Shortly thereafter, in 1947,
Gordon resigned from the Chemistry Department at Wayne University. In 1948, shortly before his
death, the research conferences were formally renamed the Gordon Research Conferences in his
honor. Neil Elbridge Gordon died in May 1949.