NHS graduate honored at Texas university

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
The Texas State University System Board of Regents has named William J. Brittain, a Regents’ Professor, the highest rank possible for faculty. Brittain, 1973 also known as Bill Norton, is a 1973 graduate of Newcastle High School. He is a professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Texas State University. 
According to a December press release from the university, “the Regents’ Professor designation honors outstanding members of the system’s professoriate who have achieved excellence in teaching, research, publication and community service, while demonstrating an unwavering dedication to their students and university.”
Brittain told the News Letter Journal that he assumed his current role at the school in 2010 but that throughout the course of his career, he has been in 12 different states and changed addresses 26 times. 
Brittain is an internationally acclaimed researcher, according to the press release, who pioneered research on polymers by co-authoring an authoritative review, which has become a seminal work with more than 1,200 citations. Evidence of his international reputation includes a 2016 development leave with Professor Jurgen Ruhe at the University of Freiberg in Germany; serving as elected chair of the Polymer Chemistry Division, which is an international professional organization with 33% of the members outside of the United States; organizing and co-organizing more than 10 national symposia, all of which had international speakers; and being invited to lecture in 19 places outside of the country, including China, Germany, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Mexico, Switzerland, Austria, The Netherlands, Czech Republic and Canada, according to his executive summary, provided to the News Letter Journal by Brittain. 
Brittain is also responsible for more than $5.5 million in grants; has received three patents; co-edited the book “Polymer Brushes: Synthesis, Characterization and Applications”; published 123 peer-reviewed articles with an exceptionally high citation ratings, making him the seventh most-cited author at Texas State; presented 71 conference proceedings; given more than 200 invited lectures; and published 93 American Chemical Society national meeting abstracts. 
Brittain has also served as vice president for global research with Bausch and Lomb in Rochester, New York, and as program officer for the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Virginia, the release says. He has also been the recipient of the GenCorp Signature Research Award, University of Akron Outstanding Researcher of the Year and the Distinguished Service Award from the American Chemical Society Division of Polymer Chemistry. 
“As an educator, Brittain has supervised the research of 25 doctoral students, eight post doctoral associates, 10 master’s students and 30 undergraduate students,” the release says. “Under his leadership, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has experienced growth in enrollment, the number of faculty and overall research production.” 
After graduating from Newcastle High School, Brittain said he went on to the University of Northern Colorado where he earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1977 before continuing his education at the California Institute of Technology, where he received his doctorate in organic chemistry in 1982. 
Brittain now resides in San Marcos, Texas, less than a mile away from his laboratory, with his wife. He has three children who live in Mexico and the Cleveland, Ohio, area. 
“Although my family moved from Newcastle in the 1980s, I fondly remember my childhood in Newcastle where I loved to hike, climb and spend time in the Black Hills,” Brittain said. “I also remember almost being expelled from Newcastle High School, for publishing an underground newspaper, and my job as a radio announcer at KASL.