Portland ACS Scholarships

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1968: Our Executive Committee decided that each year the Section should recognize outstanding junior chemistry majors resident in the local area, and attending colleges and universities within the area of the Portland Section by scholarship awards to support their senior year studies at these institutions. Pre-medical students were explicitly excluded from Scholarship consideration. Scholarship candidacy is established by chemistry department nomination and evaluated by the Section’s Scholarship  Committee. The first scholarship was awarded to Loren Brown of the University of Portland. This $500 scholarship, the Sherman Schaffer Award (SSA), was named after Sherman Schaffer, an ACS National Office functionary who was instrumental in helping Harold Zeh, Father James Anderson, Richard VanSanten, and other Portland chemists to realize their dream of establishing an ACS Local Section in the Portland area. This dream had been realized in 1961. 

1971: An additional scholarship, the Portland Section Award (PSA), was established. The two scholarships each amounted to $750. 

1977: The name of the PSA was changed to the Harold Zeh Award (HZA). 

1985: The name of the SSA was changed to the James Anderson Award (JAA). 

1988: A third Section scholarship, the Richard VanSanten Award (DVSA), was established, fully endowed by an exceedingly generous gift to the Section from its namesake. 

1990-present: Generous donations to the endowment for the Harold Zeh Award came from Section members, former Scholarship winners, and companies (THANK YOU!). Scroll down to view the whole list.

2014: A generous donation in was received from the Estate of Phyllis Zeh. 

During the 50-year period from 1968 through 2018, 133 outstanding chemistry majors have received scholarships from the Section for an aggregate value of over $200,000.