Nate Bower

Colorado College Chemistry Professor Nate Bower received the 2014 Colorado American Chemical Society Section Award for his outstanding contributions to chemistry. The award honors Bower’s lifetime achievements and acknowledges his research in numerous areas, including the development of analytical methods for fields such as archaeology, art conservation, environmental chemistry, forensic science, and numismatics. Most recently, Bower has been doing chemical analyses of the forgotten individuals in the Colorado Mental Health Institute cemetery in Pueblo, Colo., after they were unearthed by a backhoe in 1992. Bower discussed this research at the awards ceremony, noting that similar isotopic analyses have been used to follow the migrations of animals and to illuminate the life history of individuals such as England’s King Richard III. Bower, who has been teaching chemistry at CC since 1977, earned his B.A. from the College of Wooster and his Ph.D. from Oregon State.