Overberger was an adviser, consultant and author of hundreds of technical papers.
"Professor Overberger was an early giant in organic polymers who helped establish the field as a major subdiscipline in chemistry," said Robert Kuczkowski, professor and chair of the University Department of Chemistry, in a written statement.
Overberger received numerous awards during his career as a University professor. He won the Charles Lathrop Parsons Award of the American Chemical Society in 1978, the International Award of the Society of Plastics Engineers in 1979, and the Horace N. Potts medal from the Franklin Institute in 1982.
The study's results, published in last week's edition of Science magazine, describe the first experimental modifications of one of the most fundamental quantum states of matter.
Approximately 10 years ago, scientists discovered the creation of a "squeezed" state for quantum particles called phonons that carry vibrational energy through a solid.
"Our goal was to learn how to control matter - to tell the atoms what to do, rather than just watch them do something," said Roberto Merlin, a University physics professor and one of several authors of the Science article.
Tomorrow's International Medical Journal will post the results of the study, called "Evaluation of Losartan in the Elderly."
The results also were presented March 18, at the American College of Cardiology annual meeting in California.
Losartan belongs to the class of drugs called angiotensin-II receptor antagonists.
The use of Losartan resulted in a 46-percent decrease in sudden-death risk, compared with current therapy using the ACE inhibitor captopril.
The site was originally conceived by School of Pharmacy students Jill Berkiewiecz and Shamita Gupta. The site's organizers hope to prevent some of the two million poison-related deaths each year.
Technical support and design expertise for the website was provided by Thomas Knox, an ITD instructional software developer. The address for the Poison Prevention website is http://www.ipl.org/youth/poisonsafe.
- Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter Marc Lightdale.