George R. Riser

In 2017 George R. Riser BS’47, received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the School of Biological Sciences. It was an auspicious award for a truly auspicious man in part because of Riser’s sustained funding of the Riser Endowed Scholarship Fund which has provided annual scholarships to thousands of graduate and undergraduate students in biology along with travel awards for field research.

Following his graduation from the University of Utah, Riser went on to New York City to study voice with Enzo Serrafini and at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. Later, returning to his science background, he became a physical chemist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture where he worked for 23 years. He passed away at age 98 in 2022 in Huntingdon Valley, PA.