Prof. Schiesser is awarded honorary doctorate from Belgium's Polytechnique de Mons

William Schiesser, professor emeritus of chemical engineering and also mathematics, has received an honorary Doctor of Applied Science degree from the Polytechnique de Mons in Belgium for his work in numerical algorithms and software for scientific computation.

Schiesser was cited by the Polytechnique for dedicating his career to the teaching of calculus at all levels, undergraduate and graduate; for authoring seven books and monographs and numerous articles; for combining the practical and theoretical in his scientific research; and for his highly regarded work as a technical consultant to industry.

Currently, Schiesser is working with a group at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine that is conducting research into the diffusion of proteins in photoreceptors in the retina. The group is headed by Edward Pugh, the Jules and Doris Stein Research to Prevent Blindness Professor of Ophthalmology at Penn.

The Penn group aims lasers at a thin section of the proteins, causing them to fluoresce and making it possible to observe the motion of the proteins under a microscope.

Schiesser is writing equations to model the movement of the proteins. This will help scientists determine how fast the proteins move and in what directions and concentrations.