Making a Difference: Jennifer Bentson Gebel
Jennifer Bentson Gebel has had a series of amazing occupations, from career counselling to celebrated artist. She is also a strong environmental advocate who is putting her energy toward truly “making a difference” in the research that is striving to save our planet and improve the wellbeing of humans and all life on Earth. However, we know her best as an honorary Anteater who is a big supporter of AirUCI and our research teams.
Jennifer’s husband, Mike Gebel, was a Ph.D. student in the Barbara Finlayson-Pitts group. In addition to being a top-notch researcher, Mike was a very enthusiastic, fun person who always had a smile on his face. Although he commuted every day from Glendale, he was usually first in the lab each morning and last to leave in the evening.
Mike was a mischief-maker, and no one in the group escaped his attention when it came to pulling a prank. For example, one of the group members would leave clamps she was using organized in a particular order on the lab bench, ready for the next day. When Mike got in early, he would make some rearrangements that would leave her quite puzzled about whether she had actually left them that way. Another example: one of his best friends in the group was politically much more liberal than Mike. Mike secretly signed him up for the NRA and his friend could not understand why he was suddenly getting a bunch of mail on guns! He and Jennifer were wine aficionados and introduced many in the group to wine tasting.
Mike was also an athlete and highly competitive. He was a central part of a graduate student group who played regular basketball games. He was garnering a lot of sympathy from the group after sustaining an injury in one of the games, until one of the other players pointed out it was due to Mike himself being too aggressive on the court! He gave standing instructions to the research team that if he was out playing basketball and Barbara or Jennifer were looking for him, the group was to say he was “in the library”. He loved to build things and, rather than relying on the campus machine shop when he needed something, he would enlist Jennifer’s father to help him construct what he needed for his experiments.
After graduating with his Ph.D. in 2000, he took a position with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) in El Monte. Although he had several interesting options for his career, he had a deep commitment to improving our environment and saw working with CARB as his “dream job” to accomplish that. He rose rapidly through the ranks, becoming a Division Manager in a few short years. Mike’s life was cut unexpectedly short in January 2006 due to a seizure and fall at his home that led to terminal brain trauma.
Jennifer was unfailingly supportive of Mike’s goals and his work to improve air quality, human health, and environmental sustainability, and she continues to be a strong supporter of environmental studies. To memorialize his life and accomplishments, Jennifer established the Michael E. Gebel Award for graduate students, first presented in 2007. Mike worked in the “real world” for a period of time between obtaining his B.S. from Cal State Los Angeles and joining our graduate program at UCI. It was something of a financial struggle for him during graduate school, and an award would have helped significantly at this time. As a result, the Gebel awards are directed to chemistry graduate students working in environmental chemistry and who have had some wider “life experience”. This is broadly interpreted, such as a period of employment in the workforce, pursuing additional studies abroad, participating in volunteer programs, or internships.
Mike also conducted research as an undergraduate at Cal State LA, and it instilled in him a love for research and a desire to go on to earn a higher degree. For this reason, to honor his early work and inspiration, Jennifer has also established an award for undergraduate researchers at UCI. Both the graduate and undergraduate awards are presented each year at the Department of Chemistry’s annual Edward K.C. Lee Dinner, held in May.
We have wonderful memories of Mike and honor him still. It is to Jennifer’s credit that she wished to continue supporting the work that meant so much to Mike, so in 2006 we dedicated the AirUCI library as the Michael E. and Jennifer Bentson Gebel Memorial Library, and it is one of the most used of AirUCI’s spaces. Every day people gather there for a quiet moment, a small group meeting, or to enjoy lunch with fellow researchers, and a lovely portrait of Mike and Jennifer occupies a prominent spot where all can see it.
To date, dozens of students, including 33 in our Chemistry Ph.D. program, have benefitted from Jennifer’s efforts and generosity, as well having an opportunity to spend some time with her. We salute Jennifer as an honorary Anteater and AirUCI member, and thank her for her wonderful support of our efforts to clean our air and address climate change.
