In Memoriam of Dr. Harold 'Barry' Dellinger
H. Barry Dellinger
(1949-2016)
Dr. Harold 'Barry' Dellinger, Professor Emeritus in Chemistry and the founding Director of the LSU Superfund Research Center, passed away in the early evening of March 9th, 2016, after a long illness. Dr. Dellinger is known for his expertise on how compounds, especially hazardous organic pollutants, degrade as a result of combustion. His work has been recognized by industry, policy-makers, the research community and environmental groups. Dr. Dellinger was honored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in the April 2016 Environmental Factor and by the LSU College of Science.
Dr. Dellinger received his BS from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1971 and his PhD from Florida State University with Professor Kasha in 1975. From 1971-1981, he served his country in the US Air Force and retired at the rank of Captain. He performed postdoctoral studies with the late Professor Robin Hochstrasser at the University of Pennsylvania. He spent 16 years at the University of Dayton Research Institute.
Dr. Dellinger was recruited to LSU and appointed as Professor of Chemistry and Patrick F. Taylor Chair in 1998. Over his 18 year tenure at LSU, he published more than 225 papers, secured extensive research funding, graduated 12 PhD students and advised several postdoctoral researchers and research associates. His research focused on thermal degradation kinetics and degradation profiles of organic compounds with a special focus on the hazardous organic pollutants. These studies included evaluation of principal organic hazardous pollutants for their destruction and removal efficiency in both pyrolytic and oxidative conditions. His work led to the development of T99 theory or the temperature of 99% destruction of chemicals at a specific residence time and formed the foundation for what is used by the EPA to form their incinerability ranking (a guide in the performance tests of incinerator systems). His work significantly contributed to the understanding of the factors determining the formation of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated furans (PCDD/F) in thermal processes. He was the first scientist to propose the integrated model of PCDD/F formation including all 3 pathways of formation (gas phase, surface precursor and de novo).
His research increasingly focused on the origin, fate, and health impacts of particle-associated, environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) and combustion generated nanoparticles. Dr. Dellinger was the Director of the LSU Superfund Research Center that received $15,291,598 (2011-16) to investigate the environmental and health impacts of airborne pollutant-particle systems (environmentally persistent free radicals) emitted from thermal remediation technologies or wind-blown dusts created during remediation and containment activities of Superfund wastes. He has received numerous awards for his contributions to science; a few of which are outlined here:
- ACS Award for Creative Advances in Environmental Science and Technology (2014) for creativity in research and technology or methods of analysis to provide a scientific basis for informed environmental control decision-making processes, or to provide practical technologies that will reduce health risk factors.
- Elected as Fellow to the Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2010). This was awarded based on is contributions to science and technology.
- Astellas USA Foundation Award (2008) for having significantly contributed to scientific research that improved public health through his and his laboratory’s contributions in the chemical and related sciences.
The obituary for Dr. Dellinger may be read here.
Dr. Barry Dellinger at a conference in China in 2011
Dr. Barry Dellinger in China in 2011
Dr. Barry Dellinger and Dr. William Suk in China in 2011