News & Events

Kreilick was a member of the University of Rochester chemistry faculty for 44 years until his retirement on July 1, 2007. He supervised 19 PhD students, seven postdoctoral fellows, and hundreds of undergraduate students during his career. He taught General Chemistry for more than 20 years. Kreilick’s 90+ publications reflect his intellectual breadth and mastery of a variety of areas.

Kreilick was an expert in magnetic resonance, investigating properties of transition metal complexes and organic radicals in the solid state. He constructed one of the first solid-state NMR spectrometers for low temperature investigation of solids, and he also was a pioneer in the use of spin relaxation techniques. He made breakthrough contributions to software for scientific computing as a co-founder of Asyst Scientific Software, Inc. He also had a passion for teaching and developed EPR experiments for undergraduate labs with his close friend and colleague John Muenter, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, who reflected on their collaboration:

“Our concepts of what a modern spectroscopy-based Pchem lab should look like were completely in sync. We designed the experiments, obtained all the necessary components, planned the lectures and co-taught the result,” said Muenter.

“Over the years, we modernized and upgraded experiments and when Chem 222 evolved to Chem 232, all experiments were computerized. Needless to say, Bob did almost all of this work. The most important aspects of our nearly 40 years of working together were the countless daily interactions. The daily comradery among the chemists in the basement of Hutchison defined my professional life in many ways. When we moved to Hutchison, we had the same locks on our lab doors so students, postdocs and the two of us could borrow needed components at any time of the day or night. Hand tools exchanged so often that we had color coded paint dabs on each tool so they could find their way home.”

In recognition of their contributions to the updated physical chemistry lab course, Kreilick and Muenter received the 2004 Goergen Award for Curricular Achievement in Undergraduate Education. Both colleagues celebrated their retirements on June 28, 2007 at a faculty dinner at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester.

In addition to chemistry, one of Kreilick’s other passions was sailing. He was a competitive sailboat racer, and a longtime member of both the Genesee Yacht Club and the Rochester Yacht Club. Retirement provided Kreilick with time to devote to his family and sailing. He is survived by his son, Christian (Susanna) and his four grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his cherished wife, Willma, their dear daughter, Kelley Kreilick Smith, and his brother John (Joan).

Kara Bren, Chair of the Department of Chemistry, noted, “When I joined the U of R faculty in 1997, the focus of my lab was magnetic resonance. Having Bob on the faculty as an expert on these experiments was enormously helpful as I worked out experimental and instrumentation challenges for my research. I appreciated his expertise and kindness as I started up my research program.”

Kreilick was known as a dedicated colleague and educator and will be greatly missed.