Anthony M. "Tony" Trozzolo, 96, the Charles L. Huisking Professor Emeritus in the聽 at the University of Notre Dame, passed away at Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center, Mishawaka, Indiana, on July 1, 2026.
Trozzolo joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1975, after visiting campus in the early 1970s to give a series of lectures on photochromism, singlet oxygen, and dye lasers. A chemist who worked in the Radiation Research Laboratory, Trozzolo occupied the first endowed chair at the University offered to an outside candidate, and the first in the chemistry department at Notre Dame. He worked as a professor and researcher until 1998 and also served as the assistant dean of the College of Science from 1993 to 1998. Growing up in Chicago, Trozzolo was a lifelong Notre Dame fan, passing his love for the University down to his six children, who each graduated from the University. He and his wife, Doris 鈥淒olly鈥� (n茅e Stoffregen), were great friends to Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, traveling with him to China several times in the early 1980s, contributing to greater collaboration in science with Chinese faculty and students.
Before his tenure at Notre Dame, Trozzolo was a research chemist at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey from 1959 to 1975. During the age of American innovation, Trozzolo, along with the five other chemists he worked with, made many scientific discoveries to enhance solid-state technology and materials science research, contributing to Bell Labs being known as 鈥淭he Idea Factory.鈥� Trozzolo organized the first Gordon Research Conference on Organic Photochemistry in 1964, which is still active today. In 1988, he was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Gordon Research Conferences. At Bell Labs, Trozzolo focused on the creation and detection of reactive intermediates such as carbenes, dicarbenes, ground-state triplet and quintet species, and singlet molecular oxygen. He was also interested in the oxidative photodegradation of polymers. At both Bell Labs and Notre Dame, he was involved in significant research developing practical applications of organic photochemistry, particularly photo-oxidation processes.
Trozzolo is survived by six children, 12 grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, July 17, 2026 in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on campus, with burial taking place at Cedar Grove Cemetery. Visitation will take place from 2 to 8 p.m. on July 16, 2026 at , South Bend, Indiana.
Originally published by at on July 10, 2026.