Carolyn Pratt Brock '68

Alumnae Achievement Awards 1995

Chemist, Crystallographer

Carolyn Pratt Brock is a chemical theorist, researching the structure of molecules and the way they form together in the solid state. Originally from Illinois, Brock graduated from Wellesley in 1968 and obtained her Ph.D. in chemistry from Northwestern University in 1972. After graduate school, she joined the faculty of the University of Kentucky with her husband Louis, an academic engineer.

Brock’s research in structural chemistry has been recognized internationally. She gave lectures at the International Conference on the Chemistry of the Organic Solid State in Jerusalem in July 1993 and at the International Union of Crystallography in Beijing in August 1993. She has also held office within the U.S. National Committee for Crystallography. Brock focuses on constructing models of crystal formations, which have practical applications in pharmaceuticals and in the development of optical instruments.

Brock has maintained her position as a professor of chemistry at the University of Kentucky, while serving as the co-editor of the world’s leading journal of structural chemistry, Acta Crystallographica.