The Department of Chemistry is pleased to announce that President Wendy Wintersteen approved the formal naming of the North and South lobby areas of Hach Hall as the Patricia A Thiel of Hach Hall. I suggest that we colloquially refer to the halves as Thiel North and Thiel South, respectfully.
Over the coming weeks, we will get a design of a plaque to go up in the lobby.
Thiel North currently houses 5-fold symmetry elements in the wall art there; this is a very appropriate tribute to the work on characterizing Quasicrystals that Prof Thiel led for a number of years, and Prof. Thiel was the primary contact with the artist for the room, Nori Sato. Prof. Thiel was instrumental in getting the university to put the construction of Hach on “the list,” though it didn’t open for several years after her term as chair. Thus the department is delighted with this as a permanent recognition of her groundbreaking significance to Chemistry and the Ames Laboratory at Iowa State.