Professor David M. Sarno is the recipient of the ACS New York Section’s Outstanding Service Award for 2009.  Professor Sarno was presented with the award at the 2010 Sectionwide Conference held at St. John’s University on January 16.  The Outstanding Service Award is presented annually to recognize the efforts of members of the New York Section who provide their time, leadership skills and dedicated service in promoting quality programs that contribute to the excellence of the Section.  It was first awarded in 1976.

David earned his B.S., M.A.T. and Ph.D. in Chemistry at the State University of New York at Binghamton.  His doctoral work was conducted with Wayne Jones on the surface chemistry and self-assembly of mono- and multilayer architectures by transition metal coordination chemistry.  He then moved on to a post-doctoral fellowship with Alan MacDiarmid at the University of Pennsylvania to study conducting polymer nanomaterials.  In 2004, eager to get into the classroom, he joined the Chemistry Department at Queensborough Community College of CUNY.  He is now a tenured Associate Professor teaching various levels of General Chemistry lecture and lab, and he also runs a research group with 2-3 QCC undergraduates each semester.

David became an ACS member in 1997 while in graduate school.  He has attended and presented at national meetings, and published in and reviewed articles for ACS journals.  Since joining QCC he has become actively involved in the Long Island subsection of the New York Section, serving as Chair in 2008 and currently as Publicity Chair.  He also regularly contributes to the annual Chemistry Challenge and High School Awards events sponsored by the subsection.  As of 2010, he is serving his first term as Director-at-Large for the New York Section.

David made a significant contribution to the New York Section through his role in the 40th Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting in 2008.  He began his involvement in MARM as Secretary of the Executive Board, but, before long, he had become the all around “go-to-guy” and, eventually, found himself in the position of General Co-Chair along with colleague, Dr. Paris Svoronos of QCC.  MARM, over a four-day period, was attended by nearly one thousand scientists, students and educators.  Meanwhile, and in addition to his duties to the NY section and LI subsection, he was heavily involved in the creation of the first QCC Chemistry Department laboratory dedicated to student-faculty research.  But most exciting of all, he and his wife, Jenny, were expecting their first child in 2008.  Their daughter Olive arrived in July 2008.  The new parents were relieved that MARM was long over.

In 2009, MARM 2008 earned a ChemLuminary Award for Outstanding Regional Meeting.  Though the actual award is at QCC, he is proud and happy to share it with everyone who made the meeting such a success.

David lives in Astoria, Queens with his family, including a leopard gecko named Moltar.

Congratulations, David, and thank you for your continued dedication to the ACS New York Section!