When describing someone who has embraced life to the fullest, Donald H. Stedman, professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, who is retiring at the end of this academic year, comes to mind.
A native of England, Stedman completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Cambridge and graduate studies at the University of East Anglia before embarking in 1967 for the U.S. with his wife, Hazel, and his two young sons. Stedman finished his graduate studies at Kansas State University.
He and his family spent two more years in England before settling permanently in the U.S. when Stedman was offered a job as a research scientist at the Ford Motor Company in Ann Arbor, Mich. After another two years, academia beckoned.
“Professor-ism was in my family, and I decided I may as well give it a try,” Stedman said.
Following 12 years at the University of Michigan, Stedman arrived at DU in 1983.
In his 25 years working at DU, Stedman has taken part in many research projects with global implications. He and former graduate student Richard Benner invented the atmospheric sulfur detector. From 1984 to 1986, Stedman was the “chemist on board” of the National Research Council, “just at the time when evidence [for the health risks of smoking] were becoming fairly strong.”
He considers his service on the council as his “greatest political success.” Stedman helped to spur the ban of smoking on airplanes.
However, beginning in 1989 Stedman embarked on what he considers his “scientific success” when he developed RapidScreen technology, which measures emissions in cars. Today, with $3 million in royalties and over 20 patents, vans equipped with this technology can be found across Colorado.
Closer to home, Stedman jokes about how he is responsible for the convenient placement of the bike racks outside of Mudd Hall.
“I happened to see the truck delivering the bike racks, and I told [the delivery people] to place the racks just outside of either building entrance because [DU officials] had changed their minds.”
Since then, Stedman has always had a suitable parking space for his bike, which he has been riding to school since he began working.
Looking back on his career, Stedman remarks that “watching [his students] graduate is wonderful,” but when a student “builds a piece of equipment, turns it on and it works,” it is also great because “having a thing do what you told it to do is really neat.”
When asked what he will miss most, Stedman assures that although he will “miss the interaction with the diversity of students,” he will still be an active presence at DU, between research projects and the concerts he and his wife regularly attend at Newman: “[We are] unreconstructed classical musical enthusiasts – [I have been making and playing] homemade recorders ever since I was a child.”
Stedman is anticipating an Alaskan cruise in the summer, and a cruise around the Greek Islands in the fall.
To learn more about Stedman’s research, attend “A Career of Inventing Things” at 4 p.m. on May 22 in Olin 205.
