9/11/1999 TA-Training HTML Presentation |
Click on Chris's vita, teaching, or research.
He is a "lifer" at U.T. Dallas, and received his 25 year gold watch Spring 1997. And he retired after 30 years of service on 31 May 2001.
He signed on to the ground floor of the institution as a Renaissance Man, directing, for example, the University's wildly successful repertory cinema program. His interest in film predates his interest in chemistry but not by much. Indeed, both interests came together when, with Nobel Laureate John Polanyi, he produced the first computer-animated film of chemical reactions.
Chris's first taste of Chemistry was with homemade fireworks, yet he still has all his extremities intact! It filled him with such respect for chemicals that his work with them since has been almost strictly theoretical. His worst occupational hazards now are paper cuts and computer vision.
Dr. Parr has stuff to do beyond UTD as well. Not surprisingly, he is a regular at Plano's Christopher A. Parr Library!
In 2004, he went around the world. A 55-minute video of that trip is being uploaded to Google Video, if he can just convince their uploader to take full advantage of his cable modem. (It seems to think it's doing dial-up speeds, and predicts a 100-day upload time! But I'm sure he'll straighten it out soon.)
In retirement, he's VERY active in numerous nonprofit organizations. They include Plano International Festival (webmaster), Plano Rotary (he's Bulletin Editor), DFW American Chemical Society (webmaster), Texas Sister Cities (webmaster), Plano Library Foundation (webmaster), Friends of the Plano Public Library, Plano Sister Cities, UTD Retired Faculty/Staff Association, and the Plano Multicultural Outreach Roundtable (co-chair).