Wayland Noland Lab1981 1600X800
Back to News
Share

This story appeared in the Fall 2019 Letters & Science magazine.

When Wayland Evan Noland would traverse campus in the wee morning hours, it wasn’t to stumble home after pulling an all-nighter for a class. Rather, he was headed to the piers, near what are now the Lakeshore dorms, at 3:30 a.m. to begin the day his preferred way. “One of the things I liked to do was go fishing, and Lake Mendota was proximate,” explains the 1948 graduate.

It’s an understatement to say Noland knew his way around campus. In fact, he essentially grew up at UW-Madison, thanks to his history professor grandfather, Wayland Johnson Chase, and his father, longtime zoology professor Lowell Evan Noland. And the third-generation Badger, who earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, continues the legacy his elders started through generous support of faculty and students in L&S.

Noland’s parents met while pursuing graduate degrees in zoology at UW-Madison. While Ruth Chase Noland left her academic career to raise her son, her husband taught here from the 1920s until his retirement in 1966. Lowell E. Noland Hall, home to the Department of Integrative Biology, previously zoology, is named in his honor.

Research and teaching kept his father busy, so Noland spent much of his childhood with his grandfather, who took him fishing on Madison’s lakes and nearby trout streams. Noland attended the university-run Wisconsin High School, and when it came time for college, choosing UW-Madison was “the natural thing to do.”

Noland started out with an interest in science, but took a wide range of classes, even as limnology and chemistry attracted his attention.

“I had a splendid run of teachers in all different areas,” he says, adding that he even took one of his father’s zoology courses. “He was an excellent teacher and lecturer,” he says. “And you can bet I was expected to perform very well.”

In February of 1945, Noland was drafted into the Army, where he was trained as a medic and surgical technician to serve in World War II. The plan was for him to be part of an invasion of Japan, but the dropping of the atomic bombs in August spared him from combat.

After graduating from UW-Madison, Noland earned a master’s degree and PhD in chemistry at Harvard University. A post-doctoral position at the University of Minnesota led to an incredible 64-year career as a professor of chemistry, starting out in physical organic chemistry and later shifting to synthetic and mechanistic organic chemistry.

While he retired from teaching on the last day of 2016, Noland has continued his research, and plans to do so as long as possible. “I’m extremely busy,” he says.

“I can say I’ve never worked harder.” At age 92, Noland leads his lab in Minnesota, where about 10 researchers synthesize compounds that have potential pharmaceutical value for combatting disease. His staff have synthesized roughly 7,000 compounds in the course of his career, and Noland is still relentlessly pursuing compounds that will lead to viable drugs.

Noland also invests in the future — and continues his family’s multigenerational connection to the university — by encouraging his niece and nephews, including UW–Madison anthropology alumnus Howard Blaine Campbell, who teaches at the University of Texas at El Paso, and supporting the College of Letters & Science.

To ensure that future generations enjoy the high quality of teaching and the excitement of discovery that set Noland on his life’s path, he has established distinguished chairs in the departments of chemistry, integrative biology and limnology, and also contributes funds to help those units support student research.

And Noland’s advice for students and faculty alike is what has served him well in his long and successful career.

“Work hard. Focus on what your goals are. Always treat people as nicely as you can.”


Supported in Science

Meet the three Wayland E. Noland Distinguished Chairs, chosen to further scientific pursuit in their distinctive fields:

Daniel Weix Bio 650X415
Seth Blair Bio 650X415
Jake Vzanden Bio 650X415