Lynn Sousa
Professor Emeritus of Chemistry
Professor, Ball State University, 1978-2008
Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Michigan State University, 1973-1978
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, University of California-Los Angeles, 1971-1973
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1971
B.S., University of California-Davis, 1966
Ball State was fortunate to have Lynn Sousa join the chemistry department in 1978, and soon after, he and his students began making crown ether compounds that would fluoresce in the presence of ions. Over his career, he has been an author or coauthor of 34 papers and has won two highly competitive National Science Foundation-type R1 grants for his research with crown ethers. In 1991, Dr. Sousa was a Bye Fellow at Cambridge University in England, and in 1992, he was the lead speaker in a symposium on chemosensors at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington, D.C.
In 1992, Dr. Sousa was elected chairperson of the chemistry department, serving for 10 years during a period that saw the renovation of much of the department’s lab facilities. He was also involved in the hiring and support of two women faculty who won Ball State Outstanding Junior Faculty Awards. Further, he hired the department’s current instrument technician, who has been invaluable to the department’s daily function. At the university level, Dr. Sousa has served as the chair of the dean search committees for the College of Applied Sciences and Technology and the Honors College, president of the Phi Society, and a member of the Indiana Women of Achievement Awards Committee.
Dr. Sousa has taught honors chemistry and organic chemistry for preprofessional majors. He has written hundreds of letters of recommendation for admission into medical school. If a Muncie resident has been treated by a Muncie physician, chances are that Professor Sousa got her or him into medical school. Last fall, he won a university award for Excellence in Teaching. Over the past year, he has served as acting chairperson, and over the years he and his wife, Bea, have donated more than $40,000 to the university to support a chemistry scholarship in the memory of their daughter, Mikal.