Steven Dale Ittel, PhD
Parents: Maurice William Ittel and Mary Louise Miles
Brother: David Miles Ittel
Wife: Kathleen Patricia Hames
Children: Jeffrey William Ittel and Laura Marie Ittel
Steve in his office at DuPont, 1998 Steve and Kathy in front of their house, Easter, 2006
Steve Ittel was born and educated in Hamilton, Ohio. He attended the YMCA summer camp, Camp Campbell Gard, for the first time at less than a year of age because his father was Assistant Camp Director. Thus he spent the next nineteen summers of his life at camp, working in the kitchen, camp store, as a councilor and as a nature instructor.
The camp experience led to his love of nature and science. Rock collecting led to a series of successful science fair competitions and he eventually met Edward Teller ("Father of the hydrogen bomb") at an Ohio State Science Fair.
He started trombone lessons at the age of ten and after he grew into the instrument, was rather accomplished. He played semiprofessionally in jazz bands, big bands, summer concert-in-the-park bands and marching bands through high school and college. Music paid for a substantial portion of his college education. His interest extended to guitar which he played for fun and for folk masses in various churches.
He received his BS in chemistry from Miami University in Oxford Ohio and was the top senior chemistry major in 1968. His science education led to an important change in his life when he met Kathleen Hames in an Honors Physics Seminar. They were wed in Kettering, Ohio immediately after graduation. After two years of studying photochemical smog in the greater New York City area for the National Air Pollution Control Administration as a commissioned officer in the United States Public Health Service, he attended Northwestern University on the GI Bill where he studied inorganic chemistry under Professor Jim Ibers.
He then left for a career at DuPont, the premier chemical company in the US. He is currently a member a team of scientists at DuPont in Wilmington Delaware, involved in the application of carbon nanotubes to Field Emission Display Devices.
Over the years, he has managed programs in fundamental organometallic chemistry, homogeneous catalysis, bioinorganic chemistry, and mineral beneficiation. The organometallic chemistry has included C-H activation and fluoro-organometallic chemistry. Catalysis has included olefin polymerization and oxidation. Over ninety publications and fifty patents document his own personal research. "Homogeneous Catalysis," co-authored with George Parshall, is a standard reference on the use of transition metals in commercial industrial processes.
The most significant aspect of working at DuPont is the camaraderie and stimulation provided by some of the best scientists in the world. He would particularly like to acknowledge his interactions and collaborations with the many individuals who have been in his group (Ittel Group Members) over the years and particularly Chad Tolman, Paul Krusic, David Thorn, Rolf Mülhaupt, Frank Weigert, Alexei Gridnev and Lynda Johnson. They and others have been the ones who make work at DuPont fun.
Obviously, he has a passion for chemistry - but there are other diversions. He is quite active in bonsai, having a collection of trees that exceeds his capacity to provide the care they deserve. Some of them may be viewed on the web site of The Brandywine Bonsai Society. He is a co-webmaster of that site and is responsible for the portion dedicated to Bonsai Potters of North America. Bonsai is literally translated from Japanese as "tree in a pot." The trees are very important, but so are the pots. As a result, he also does a bit of bonsai pottery and some of the results can be seen on that website.
Genealogy is his winter diversion when the trees are dormant. This website is an outlet for the considerable research that goes on. And, of course, if he is running two web sites (there are actually more), then he must like playing around with computers.
During bonsai pottery, Steve modeled for the next-door photography class. This is the result. Stark lighting. Unretouched photography. Must be what he really looks like, but he had a tough time keeping the smile away as long as they had him sitting.